Solar concentrator reactor for high temperature thermochemical processes

A solar concentrator reactor system producing a reacted material, the system comprising:

• a solar concentrator reactor comprising:
• an enclosed vessel having an upper portion and a lower portion, the lower portion comprising a tray configured to hold a reacted material pool of reacted material;
• a solar concentrator comprising a light concentrating system configured to produce a solar energy light profile comprising solar energy converging to an irradiating location within the enclosed vessel;
• a particle feed device configured to deliver a set of falling particles of a particle stream to the irradiating location, the set of falling particles descending by gravity in a falling particle direction from the upper portion to the lower portion in the direction of gravity, the first irradiating location between the upper portion and the lower portion;
• and
• a controller configured to control an incidence angle between the solar energy light profile and the falling particle direction to provide the solar energy to the irradiating location;
• wherein:
• the controller controls the incidence angle, by control of the light concentrating system, to directly irradiate the set of falling particles of the particle stream to produce a thermochemical reaction of at least the set of falling particles and yield a reacted material;
• the light concentrating system is at least one of:
• a parabolic mirror, a heliostatic reflector, a lens, and a refractive optic;
• the reacted material is extruded from the lower portion at a selectable extrusion rate;
• and
• the selectable extrusion rate is controlled by the controller by control of one or more of the enclosed vessel pressure, a nozzle orifice size, and the nozzle temperature.

A solar concentrator reactor system producing a reacted material and an output gas, the system comprising:

• an enclosed vessel having an upper portion and a lower portion, the lower portion comprising a tray configured to hold a reacted material pool of reacted material;
• a gas inlet configured to input an input gas stream to the enclosed vessel;
• a gas outlet configured to output an output gas stream comprising the output gas from the enclosed vessel;
• a solar concentrator comprising a light concentrating system configured to produce a concentrated light comprising solar energy to an irradiating location within the enclosed vessel;
• a particle feed device configured to deliver a set of falling particles of a particle stream to the irradiating location, the set of falling particles descending by gravity in a falling particle direction from the upper portion to the lower portion in the direction of gravity, the first irradiating location between the upper portion and the lower portion;
• and
• a controller configured to control an incidence angle between the concentrated light and the falling particle direction to provide solar energy to the irradiating location;
• wherein:
• the controller controls the light concentrating system to control the incidence angle to directly irradiate the set of falling particles to produce a thermochemical reaction of at least the set of falling particles, the thermochemical reaction yielding a reacted material and the output gas;
• the reacted material is extruded from the enclosed vessel;
• and
• the output gas stream is output from the gas outlet.