高温太陽集熱による化学燃料製造技術(<特集>太陽熱発電・太陽熱燃料製造の最先端 第2集) [in Japanese] Solar Fuel Production by High-temperature Solar Heat(<Special Article>Advances in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and Solar Thermochemistry: Part II) [in Japanese]
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This paper reviews the recent technology for solar fuel production using concentrated solar high temperature heat as an energy source and water and fossil fuels as a chemical source. This technology enables production of long term storable clean energy carrier from solar energy and solar energy transportation from sunbelt to remote countries, such as Japan. Concentrated solar radiation has some specific properties such as high density, heterogeneous distribution of thermal flux, and frequent thermal transients due to the fluctuating insolation. Thus, some solar-specific reactors/reformers have been developed to convert the high temperature solar heat into hydrogen and synthetic gas of carbon monoxide and hydrogen via solar thermochemical processes of thermochemical water-splitting, natural gas reforming and coal gasification. The technical development and feasibility of these solar fuel production processes is discussed, and recent international collaboration researches for demonstration of solar fuel production are introduced here.