International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol.43, No.9, 4167-4176, 2018
Energy and exergy analyses of hybrid photocatalytic hydrogen production reactor for Cu-Cl cycle
The present paper concerns electrochemical, energy, exergy and exergoeconomic analyses of a hybrid photocatalytic-based hydrogen production reactor which is capable of replacing the electrolysis sub-system of the CuCl thermochemical cycle. Several operating parameters, such as current density, reactor temperature, ambient temperature and electrode distance, are varied to study their effects on the hydrogen production rate, the cost of hydrogen production and energy and exergy efficiencies. The present results show that the voltage drops across the anolyte solution (sol 1), catholyte solution (sol 2), an anode, cathode, and cation exchange membrane vary from 0.005 to 0.016 V, 0.004-0.013 V, 1.67-2.168 V, 0.18-0.22 V and 0.06-0.19 V, respectively with an increase in current density from 0.5 to 1.5 A/cm(2). The energy and exergy efficiencies of the hybrid photocatalytic hydrogen production reactor decrease from 5.74 to 4.54% and 5.11 to 4.04%, respectively with an increase in current density. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.