Solar energy combined with chemical reactive systems for the production and storage of sustainable energy. A review of thermodynamic principles

This review article deals with thermodynamics and thermochemistry of processes combining solar radiation power with chemical reactions for the production and storage of usable energy. Some of the most promising procedures of such processes discussed in the literature have been selected as representative examples and are analyzed on the basis of their thermodynamic principles rather than reporting on technical details and feasibility studies with respect to economic potentials. The examples studied involve pure gaseous as well as heterogeneous reactive systems where the shift of chemical equilibria at different temperatures is used to gain chemical energy. The majority of examples focusses on different multistep chemical processes for water splitting into H-2 and O-2 which have already been tested on laboratory and semi technical scale. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.