Design and performance of solar concentrator assisted photocatalytic reactors for solar-to-hydrogen conversion

Abstract

Solar-powered water splitting via photocatalysis provides a sustainable method towards low-carbon hydrogen generation. However, efficient capture and utilisation of solar energy remains a key challenge for existing reactor designs. Whilst Compound Parabolic Concentrators (CPCs) can enhance the Solar-To-Hydrogen (STH) efficiency of photocatalytic systems, to date the optimal designs have not been developed. To address this knowledge gap, we report a methodology to design optimised solar photocatalytic reactors and predict their performance for maximum hydrogen production. Reactor design features for four geographically diverse locations – London, Cardiff, Cairo and Chennai – are presented and shown to achieve Annual Optical Efficiency (AOE) of 74.2%, 78.4%, 89.1% and 84.8% respectively. The model incorporates real life solar and climatic conditions with accompanying experiments enabling validation of the model results. Experimental data is used to predict the total hydrogen production for peak summer months for several geometric configurations across all four locations. Experimental results show that STH peaked at 353 K. This integrated experimental-computational framework provides valuable insights into the optimisation of solar concentrator design to maximise hydrogen generation and advances the development of sustainable hydrogen production technologies.