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Sustainable Solar Energy Technologies and Materials for Solar Thermal and Power Generation

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 March 2023) | Viewed by 2528

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Mechanical Engineering Department, Government Engineering College, Patan 384265, India
Interests: solar photovoltaic; solar desalination; sensible heat storage materials; latent heat storage materials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Solar energy is considered a renewable energy, and it does not pollute the environment. It can be harnessed by either solar thermal or solar photovoltaic means. Due to the increment in global warming, the use of solar energy technologies is increasing; therefore, new and sustainable technologies are required. However, the selection of new and sustainable solar energy technologies requires extensive knowledge and expertise. Materials play a key role in sustainable development, and the proper study of solar thermal and solar photovoltaic materials required for sustainable development is required.

This Special Issue will cover new findings related to materials used in solar thermal and photovoltaic technologies (solar water heating, solar drying, solar thermal power generation, solar photovoltaic power generation, solar architecture, solar hybrid PV/T systems etc.). It will reveal new and critical findings in solar thermal and solar photovoltaic technologies for the sustainable development of humanity. Manuscripts describing new experimental and theoretical studies in these fields are highly welcome in this Special Issue.

Dr. Hitesh Panchal
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • solar applications in buildings
  • advances in concentrated solar power generation
  • solar power applications in space
  • solar-powered vehicles
  • solar desalination innovations
  • solar fuel cells and applications
  • floating solar plants and their innovations
  • solar energy applications in agriculture
  • sensible/latent heat storage applications in solar energy
  • solar passive/active buildings
  • solar hybrid systems

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

24 pages, 4088 KiB  
Article
Modeling Analysis of a Polygeneration Plant Using a CeO2/Ce2O3 Chemical Looping
by Greta Magnolia, Massimo Santarelli, Domenico Ferrero and Davide Papurello
Materials 2023, 16(1), 315; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16010315 - 29 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1997
Abstract
In the current context of complexity between climate change, environmental sustainability, resource scarcity, and geopolitical aspects of energy resources, a polygenerative system with a circular approach is considered to generate energy (thermal, electrical, and fuel), contributing to the control of CO2 emissions. [...] Read more.
In the current context of complexity between climate change, environmental sustainability, resource scarcity, and geopolitical aspects of energy resources, a polygenerative system with a circular approach is considered to generate energy (thermal, electrical, and fuel), contributing to the control of CO2 emissions. A plant for the multiple productions of electrical energy, thermal heat, DME, syngas, and methanol is discussed and analyzed, integrating a chemical cycle for CO2/H2O splitting driven using concentrated solar energy and biomethane. Two-stage chemical looping is the central part of the plant, operating with the CeO2/Ce2O3 redox couple and operating at 1.2 bar and 900 °C. The system is coupled to biomethane reforming. The chemical loop generates fuel for the plant’s secondary units: a DME synthesis and distillation unit and a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The DME synthesis and distillation unit are integrated with a biomethane reforming reactor powered by concentrated solar energy to produce syngas at 800 °C. The technical feasibility in terms of performance is presented in this paper, both with and without solar irradiation, with the following results, respectively: overall efficiencies of 62.56% and 59.08%, electricity production of 6.17 MWe and 28.96 MWe, and heat production of 111.97 MWt and 35.82 MWt. The fuel production, which occurs only at high irradiance, is 0.71 kg/s methanol, 6.18 kg/s DME, and 19.68 kg/s for the syngas. The increase in plant productivity is studied by decoupling the operation of the chemical looping with a biomethane reformer from intermittent solar energy using the heat from the SOFC unit. Full article
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