Egg-Tray-Inspired Concave Foam Structure on Pore-Scale Space Radiation Regulation for Enhancing Photo-Thermal-Chemical Synergistic Conversion

Abstract

Solar-to-fuel is an approach of converting concentrated solar high-temperature heat radiation to high-value chemical fuel, providing sustainable means for large-scale solar energy storage. However, the inefficient space radiation regulation and unclear photo-thermal-chemical multiphysics synergy limit solar to fuel conversion. To effectively improve photo-thermal-chemical conversion, here, we propose a novel idea of using an egg-tray-inspired concave structure in foam solar receiver-reactors for pore-scale space radiation regulation. The multiphysics field coupling model is accurately constructed to truly describe the complex radiation energy conversion process. Experimental and numerical results illustrate that, the proposed egg-tray-inspired concave structure can achieve the better radiation absorption and transmission, multi-field synergy and thermochemical conversion. The solar radiation absorption capacity can be increased by 7.05%. The improvements reach a maximum efficiency of 3.17% for photo-thermal conversion and 9.77% for photo-chemical conversion. The excellent synergistic conversion of solar-to-fuel opens a new pathway towards accelerating energy transition and upgrading.

Keywords: Solar energy, Solar to fuel, Radiative transfer, Synergistic conversion, Radiation regulation, Bio-inspired