Materials Colloquium 2020 – October, 7th, 16:30
Zoom
Brendan Bulfin (Professorship of Renewable Energy Carriers, D-MAVT, ETH Zürich)
Metal oxide redox cycles offer a pathway for converting heat into chemical energy via the thermal reduction of a metal oxide. The reduced metal oxide can then be used in a number of applications by re-oxidized it in a second step, utilizing the stored chemical energy and returning the oxide to its original state. Applications include; thermochemical fuel production via water or carbon dioxide splitting, thermal energy storage, and oxygen storage and separation. Here we discuss these applications, with a focus on the redox materials and their requirements. The crucial limiting factors for these applications are the thermodynamics of the reactions, which depend strongly on the choice of oxide. These limitations will be discussed along with developments in the field. Finally, a large material screening study of perovskite oxides will be presented.