Experimental investigation on thermochemical heat storage using Ca(OH)₂/CaO in the cyclone reactor

The thermochemical energy storage system Ca(OH)₂/CaO is a promising energy storage system and has become a potential alternative energy storage system for Concentrating Solar Power (CSP). In this study, the cyclone reactor with a secondary flow effect is applied to the Ca(OH)₂/CaO thermochemical energy storage system. An experimental platform with the cyclone reactor is built. In the cold state experiment, the average feeding speed of Ca(OH)₂ is first determined by the cold state experiment to be 10.76–14.08 g/min, and the initial ejection time of particles at the outlet of the reactor is 23–28 s at the gas flow rate of 14 m/s. In the heat storage experiment, it is found that the outlet humidity fluctuates near the maximum value and that the temperature inside the reactor tends to decrease first and then increase layer by layer. Further experimental investigation indicated that, when changing the inlet flow rate and temperature conditions, the conversion rate increases first and then decreases with the increase of inlet flow rate and temperature, and reaches a maximum value of 87.07 % at 800 ℃ and 69.41 % at 14 m/s. This indicates that there is an optimal temperature and flow rate in the cyclone reactor to obtain the best reaction performance.