Design and optimization of solar-dish volumetric reactor for methane dry reforming process with three-dimensional optics-CFD method

Solar thermochemical methane dry reforming process has great potential for long-term energy storage. Most of the current researches focused on the development of efficient catalyst or the operation optimization of solar reactor with certain structure design. However, there is still a lack of research into the comparison study of different reactor structure designs and optimization strategies for chemical conversion process intensification. In this paper, a three-dimensional coupled optical-CFD model is established to explore the effects of different reactor structure designs, catalyst distribution optimization and thermal conductivity improvement on the performance enhancement of methane dry reforming (MDR) reaction. It is found that the cylindrical porous foam reactor has higher heat absorption efficiency and better chemical conversion performance. The distribution of catalyst would obviously affect the overall performance of the reactor and rational adjustment of catalyst distribution has the potential to improve the reactor performance. Improving the heat transfer ability of porous absorber can help to reduce the temperature gradient inside the reactor but has little effect on the reaction conversion. And the relative position of solar reactor can also affect the light propagation path and influencing the reaction process. In general, the obtained results can provide valuable references for the future study of high-temperature solar thermochemical reactors.