Experimental study of hydrogen production by direct decomposition of water

In this paper, the hydrogen production by direct decomposition of water in a solar furnace is experimentally studied. The experimental set-up is a horizontal axis system consisting of two 1.0 kW parabolic concentrators both powered by a single heliostat. In this system, a temperature level of 3000 K is possible. In the experimental study, the water is fed to the reactor installed at the focal space of the concentrator. The steam is then decomposed at about 2500 K. The reactor consisted of a cylindrical cavity type refractory receiver covered with a silica cupola. The steam was introduced at a known rate into the cavity and the product gases were quenched as soon as they were produced in the reactor. After the condensation of steam, hydrogen and oxygen were collected in a reservoir. The experimental results indicate that with an optimized system, it is possible to produce hydrogen at about 70 percent rate of the theoretical value at the temperature level studied.