Design and experimental testing of a combustion nozzle for use with a solar reactor

It is important to have homogenous temperature distribution inside solar receivers and reactors. This paper presents a methodologic adaptation of a burner nozzle for use with a solar receiver to test and compare the performance of mixing effect of the nozzle with that of used in combustion system. Design steps are described per understanding of the influence of burner nozzle and then creation of a new type of injection port for a solar reactor via adaptive modification. Influence of the nozzle design on the temperature distribution inside a solar reactor is studied per experimental testing of the solar receiver with the new nozzle using a 7 kW high flux solar simulator. Finally, a CFD simulation of the flow pattern inside the solar receiver is given. The results show that it is possible to create different flow patterns inside a solar reactor and enhance the mixing of reactants. The results also show that nozzle provides more homogenous temperature distribution inside the solar reactor. This research demonstrates that implementation of a technique used in a mature field like combustion into solar thermal technology may inspire adaptation of other applications from combustion field to solar thermal field which would accelerate developments in emerging solar thermochemical process technology.