Experimental demonstration of high-temperature heat recovery in a solar reactor

The production of drop-in liquid fuels via solar-driven thermochemical processes is a promising pathway for sustainable aviation and maritime sectors. The most important performance indicator is the solar-to-fuel energy efficiency, which is severely limited in a temperature-swing redox cycle without the application of heat recovery between the reduction and oxidation steps. In this work, we report on the successful experimental demonstration of high-temperature heat recovery in a solar reactor using a honeycomb-based thermal energy storage unit. With nitrogen as the heat transfer fluid, a heat recovery effectiveness of 33% is obtained using solar radiation as the sole energy input.