Issue 7, 2021

Modeling and design guidelines of high-temperature photoelectrochemical devices

Abstract

Operation of photoelectrochemical devices at high temperatures can provide a pathway to reduce the operating voltage, increase the production rate, and allow for the use of more earth abundant catalysts. Additionally, high-temperature operation offers the promise to utilize a larger fraction of the solar spectrum through the use of thermal energy and therefore has the potential for higher efficiency operation. However, PEC devices operating at temperatures above 100 °C require the use of new semiconducting junctions for charge separation and ceramic solid electrolytes for ion conduction. The feasibility and design of such devices is not known. We developed a non-isothermal computational model of a high-temperature PEC device, consisting of a photo-enhanced thermionic emitter for photon absorption, charge generation and separation, and a solid oxide electrolyzer for the ionic conduction and the water and CO2 splitting reactions. The model predicted that such a device made of established materials is feasible with operating temperatures of the photoabsorber in the range of 600–800 K, reaching solar-to-fuel efficiencies between 8 to 13%, and H2 evolution rates between 17 to 72 mmol m−2 s−1. It also has the possibility of generating syngas for the generation of synthetic fuels, when the appropriate amount of water is supplied to the device. The device concept was assessed under different scenarios that consider variations in design, operating conditions, and material properties in order to provide general device design guidelines and highlight the potential of high-temperature PEC devices.

Graphical abstract: Modeling and design guidelines of high-temperature photoelectrochemical devices

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 Nov 2020
Accepted
18 Feb 2021
First published
22 Mar 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2021,5, 2169-2180

Modeling and design guidelines of high-temperature photoelectrochemical devices

R. R. Gutierrez and S. Haussener, Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2021, 5, 2169 DOI: 10.1039/D0SE01749C

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements