Development and on sun field testing of photoelectrochemical reactors for scaling-up solar hydrogen production G. H. Creasey 1,2 *, A. W. Moelich 3 , J. W. Rodriguez Acosta 1 , T. Shalvey 4 , D. A. Garcia-Osorio 4 , J. Zhu 1 , S. Halder 1 , J. Major 5 , A. Cowan 4 , C. McGregor 3 , A. G. Kafizas 2 , A. Hankin 1 1 Imperial College London, Department of Chemical Engineering, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom, 2 Imperial College London, Department of Chemistry, London, W12 0BZ, United Kingdom, 3 Stellenbosch University, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Stellenbosch, 7602, South Africa, 4 University of Liverpool, Department of Chemistry, Liverpool, L69 7ZD, United Kingdom, 5 University of Liverpool, Department of Physics, Liverpool, L69 7ZE, United Kingdom * g.creasey22@imperial.ac.uk Research in photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen production remains primarily focused on materials development, with few studies addressing devices. Taking PEC hydrogen production from the lab towards commercialisation requires a whole systems approach in which the device and materials design are addressed in parallel. Several constraints on photoelectrode materials and photoelectrochemical devices must be considered simultaneously. These include: (i) electrode scalability; (ii) modes of illumination; (iii) current distribution on the electrodes; (iv) heat and mass transport [1] . Alongside these considerations, photoelectrode materials must harness light over a wide range of wavelengths, catalyse water oxidation/reduction, and be chemically, (photo) electrochemically and mechanically robust. Our up-scaled photoelectrochemical reactor ( Fig. 1 ) was tested outdoors with natural sunlight at the Stellenbosch University solar rooftop laboratory testing facility (33.93° S, 18.86° E). The 60 cm 2 reactor was mounted on a two- axis tracking platform, with light directed laterally onto both the photoanode and photo(cathode) sides, either with reflected or concentrated (up to four times) irradiance. The reactor was operated in two modes: Photoelectrochemical (PEC), with an FTO | WO 3 | BiVO 4 | NiFeOOH photoanode and a FTO | Au | Sb 2 Se 3 | CdS | TiO 2 | Pt photocathode [2] .PV-assisted photoelectrochemical (PV-PEC), with an FTO | WO 3 | BiVO 4 | NiFeOOH photoanode, Ni cathode and externally mounted c-Si PVs. I shall discuss experimental results from reactor testing, including associated difficulties of taking experiments from a controlled lab facility to an outdoor testing environment, and the performance of the reactor, operated in different modes and configurations. References 1. A review of inorganic photoelectrode developments and reactor scale-up challenges for solar hydrogen production, Adv. Energ. Mater., 2021, 11, 2003286. 2. Benchmark performance of low-cost Sb 2 Se 3 photocathodes for unassisted solar overall water splitting, Nat. Commun., 2020, 11, 861.
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