Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 9.2.7 Hybrid use of concentrator photovoltaic panel and high temperature electrolysis.
the potential to deliver a higher energy and hydrogen production efficiency. A reported
hybrid technology is a concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) utilizing water-cooled multi-
sun photovoltaic panels to receive tens or hundreds of suns to generate electricity with
visible light at a much higher efficiency than one-sun PV panels, and at the same time
generate steam with concentrated infrared for high temperature electrolysis (HTE)
(Lasich, 1999). As shown in Figure 9.2.7, the sunlight is concentrated by a parabolic
dish or trough, and the water is heated by cooling the PV panels and evaporated by
receiving the reflected infrared radiation. At the focal spot, a spectral splitter reflects
infrared radiation but allows for the transmission of visible light to high-efficiency solar
photovoltaic cells behind the splitter. The reflected infrared radiation is conducted to
the steam generator for the HTE process.
The electricity for the electrolysis is generated from the concentrated visible light.
It was reported that this type of system could provide 40% for the solar-to-hydrogen
efficiency in the near term (McConnell et al., 2005, 2006; Thompson, 2005). A major
challenge of this technology is that the hydrogen and oxygen are produced in a mixture,
which may have drawbacks for the separation in the scale-up of the system.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search