Stabilized Mo As a MOC for CSP and Solar Fuels

Solar fuels and chemical production and future concentrated solar power (CSP) all require high operating temperatures above 800 °C and some chemistries up to 1500 °C. Examples include water splitting to produce H₂ (~ 1400 °C), steam gasification of biomass or municipal waste (1200 °C) and methane pyrolysis to acetylene (1500 °C) and natural gas reforming (~ 1400 °C). Major barriers to achieving commercial success are materials of construction (MOC) and improving the chemistries to achieve higher yields and at lower temperatures.

To reduce the cost of CSP and solar-thermal chemistries, it is suggested that Mo stabilized in air with an MoSiB composite coating or the MoSiB composite itself can offer many advantages as MOC. Mo is compatible with most molten metals and molten salts, has a tensile strength > 120 MPa at 1000 °C that will allow thin wall tubing and components. Results show stability in air to 1650 °C and thermal cycling 500 times to 1500 °C. The MoSiB composite was produced by a scalable, low cost mechanical alloying technique.

One application for this MOC is solar driven thermochemistry which takes place in the temperature range of 1000 – 1400 °C. In this presentation, we will also discuss a scalable prototype receiver, which contains an indirectly-irradiated packed bed reactor, which was developed to experimentally demonstrate the chemical-looping, dry reforming of methane over ceria with simulated concentrated solar radiation