Researchers generate over 1000 degrees Celsius with solar energy
Published: Thursday, May 16th 2024, 13:20
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Zurich scientists have used solar radiation to generate temperatures of over 1000 degrees Celsius. The technology will one day be used in energy-intensive industrial processes such as cement production, as announced by ETH Zurich on Thursday.
"People often think of energy only in terms of electricity, but we actually consume around half of our energy in the form of heat," said Emiliano Casati, researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich), according to the press release.
However, temperatures of over 1000 degrees Celsius are required to produce materials such as cement, glass, steel and ceramics. To achieve this heat, coal or natural gas is usually burned, releasing large amounts of CO2, as the university emphasized.
Efficiency significantly improved
In a study published in the specialist journal "Device", Casati has now shown that this heat can also be achieved with solar energy. Technologies for concentrating solar energy already existed before, as the ETH explained. Large solar power plants for generating electricity have been built in Spain, the USA and China, among other places. These plants generally operate at temperatures of up to 600 degrees.
The Zurich researchers developed a so-called thermal trap for their experiment. These already existed before, but in previous studies by other researchers, a maximum of 170 degrees was achieved.
The thermal trap optimized by the ETH researchers reached 1050 degrees Celsius in tests, as the study shows. At its heart is a quartz rod which, thanks to its optical properties, can efficiently absorb sunlight and convert it into heat. The researchers irradiated it with artificial light, the intensity of which corresponded to 135 times the concentrated sunlight.
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