Solar Thermochemical Conversion of CO2 into C via SnO2/SnO Redox Cycle: A Thermodynamic Study

In this paper we report the computational thermodynamic modeling of the solar thermochemical SnO2/SnO\ud redox cycle for solid C production via CO2 splitting. In this redox cycle, the first step corresponds to the solar\ud thermal reduction of SnO2 into SnO and O2 in presence of inert atmosphere. The second step, which is a nonsolar\ud exothermic stage, is the reaction of SnO with CO2 to produce solid C together with SnO2 that is recycled\ud back to the first step. Commercially available HSC Chemistry software and databases were used for the\ud computational thermodynamic modeling of this process. The thermodynamic analysis was performed in two\ud sections: 1) equilibrium composition analysis, and 2) exergy analysis. Results obtained via the computational\ud thermodynamic modeling are presented in detail. The simulation results indicate that the solar thermochemical\ud SnO2/SnO redox cycle for solid C production via CO2 splitting can achieve the solar to fuel conversion\ud efficiency upto 12%