Small-scale demonstration of the conversion of renewable energy to synthetic hydrocarbons

Abstract

The design and build of a pilot plant for the conversion of solar energy to synthetic hydrocarbons is presented. In addition to technical realization, valuable economic parameters and information about suppliers are presented. The average power of the installation is set to 2 kW, which corresponds to the world average energy consumption of a single person. The main components of the system are photovoltaic cells, batteries, an electrolyser, a metal hydride storage and compression system, a CO₂ capture unit and chemical reactors. The installation allows studying the energy flows and reservoirs and the interaction between different components, comparing the performance of competing technologies and establishing an energetic and economic database from the real world. Further, the operating parameters such as pressure, temperatures and energy flows are recorded at different locations to enable for system modeling and advanced optimization techniques to be applied on real data. Last, the degradation of the various components will be investigated under actual working conditions.