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Integrating reforming into solar-powered redox processes takes a large step towards improving the sustainability of fuel and chemical production processes in circular chemical industries and could ultimately find large-scale applications in the form of solar-powered reforming plants or solar refineries.
In most cases, the coupled system improves the efficiency by more than 30%. Solar-driven two-step thermochemical cycling is a promising means to convert solar energy into storable and transportable chemical fuel, in which hydrogen or carbon monoxide is generated by continuous reduction and oxidation reactions.
The oxygen-carriers in the chemical-looping cycle can be reduced by adding reductants or direct heating with waste heat from the thermochemical cycle. The coupled system can remove the oxygen in the thermochemical cycle reduction reaction and reduce the energy consumption in this process.
By coupling the thermodynamically favourable oxidation of waste-derived organic carbon streams with fuel-forming reduction reactions suitable for producing clean hydrogen or converting CO2 to fuels, solar reforming simultaneously valorizes waste and generates useful chemical products.