Store and utilize solar heat at 1200 degrees

Solar fuel
Store and utilize solar heat at 1200 degrees

30.09.2024

Quelle: Empa

2 min Reading time

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The ETH spin-off Synhelion has inaugurated the world’s first industrial plant for the production of solar fuels in Germany. There is also a piece of Empa at the heart of the system: Empa researchers developed a material for the high-temperature heat storage that allows the system to be operated around the clock – even without sunlight.

Pixabay)”> The concentrated energy of the sun heats water vapor to a temperature of up to 1200 degrees Celsius. The reactor is operated with this high-temperature process heat, even at night.

Converting climate-damaging carbon dioxide back into kerosene, gasoline and diesel and thus closing the CO2 cycle: That’s Synhelion’s idea. The ETH spin-off uses the heat of the sun to produce synthetic fuels (synfuels) from CO2 and water. In June 2024, Synhelion opened DAWN in Jülich: the world’s first industrial plant for the production of solar fuels. Thanks to a collaboration with the Empa Laboratory for Advanced Ceramics, the plant can produce renewable fuels around the clock – even at night.

Solar energy makes high-temperature processes possible

In order to turn CO2 and water into fuel again, the plant needs one thing above all: energy. A large mirror field focuses the sunlight onto a single point on the solar radiation receiver. It contains water vapor that reaches a temperature of up to 1200 degrees Celsius due to the concentrated energy of the sun. The reactor is operated with this high-temperature process heat. Excess heat is stored in a chamber several cubic meters in size, filled with special bricks. These bricks – a joint development by Empa and Synhelion – serve as temporary storage for the enormous heat. Overnight it is this heat reserve that keeps the reactor running.

Wanted: The perfect ceramic

At 1200 degrees, not all bricks are the same. Even ceramics corrode when they come into direct contact with the ultra-high temperature steam. None of the high temperature bricks available on the market were designed for these conditions. So Synhelion approached Empa. In a two-year project funded by Innosuisse, Empa researcher Gurdial Blugan and Empa scientist Sena Yüzbasi teamed up with Synhelion to search for the perfect ceramic:

• However, corrosion resistance was only one aspect.

• The material should also have a high heat capacity, be mechanically robust and withstand thermal shocks that can occur during plant shutdown.

• It also had to be cheap to produce – because the facility in Jülich is just the beginning for Synhelion.

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So the researchers, together with the Empa and Synhelion workshops, designed their own high-temperature tube furnace. They exposed different ceramic samples to the corrosive water vapor atmosphere for up to 500 hours. “It got pretty hot in our lab during these experiments,” smiles Blugan. But the sweat was worth it: the researchers found a material that withstood the extreme conditions.

Continue together

Together with their project partners, they refined the composition of the material and optimized the manufacturing process to further improve the properties and reduce costs. The bricks were then manufactured by a partner company in Germany and installed in DAWN. “As a researcher, you don’t often see your research being applied on such a scale – it’s a unique experience,” says Yüzbasi.

While DAWN begins operations, Synhelion and Empa are already planning the next joint project. For future systems, they want to further develop the material and make it even more durable. The second Synhelion plant for the production of solar fuel is scheduled to be built in Spain from 2025. The goal: even larger storage, even higher temperatures. The higher the temperature, the more efficient fuel production becomes.

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