Faculty Sponsor

Luke Venstrom, Peter Krenzke

College

College of Engineering (COE)

Department/Program

Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering

ORCID Identifier(s)

0009-0005-3909-8783 (Josh), 0009-0004-9990-7565 (Gil), 0009-0004-0231-1811 (Kaylee), 0009-0005-2356-8779 (Brian)

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Summer 7-23-2025

Abstract

To investigate the production of solar hydrogen with perovskite redox cycles, we have developed two experimental platforms. First is an infrared (IR) furnace, which can expose perovskite materials to hundreds of redox cycles to evaluate hydrogen production stability. We have synthesized multiple perovskites to evaluate which best produces hydrogen over many cycles. We created a loading procedure and assembly aids to facilitate repeatable loading of the perovskite samples. We configured flow controllers and valves to supply process gases to carry out the perovskite redox cycle, including the option for a flow reversal configuration. Perovskite performance is quantified in terms of the average mole fraction of oxygen evolved during reduction and the mole fraction of fuel produced during oxidation. A Raman Laser Gas Analyzer (RLGA) gives volumetric gas concentration data downstream of the flow. For real-time data logging, we use LabVIEW + Modbus to pull data from the RLGA. The second experimental platform is for evaluating the same perovskite redox cycle approach to hydrogen production, but at a 20 g scale, driven by concentrated sunlight. A reactor cavity was installed onto the reactor table, and a LabVIEW VI was created to monitor and record temperatures for solar-driven hydrogen experiments. To measure the solar resource available while testing, we updated a sun-tracking pyrheliometer from an Arduino-based system to one with a Raspberry Pi. Configuring the tracking system required setting up a GPS to get a precise time, creating a web server to display data, and transferring the existing C++ (Arduino language) to Python.

Biographical Information about Author(s)

Kaylee Roberts is a Junior Mechanical Engineering student. She joined the Valpo solar research team to work towards finding efficient, sustainable fuel sources and to gain experience working in a research environment to shape post-undergraduate plans.

Gil Guinto: a Senior Mechanical Engineering student. Chose to do research on solar energy as a means to gather real-life experience and get a grasp for possible graduate school.

Josh Roemer is a Junior Mechanical Engineering student. He joined the Valpo solar research team to expand his work experience and help in the advancement of knowledge on more efficient fuel sources.

Brian Sponaugle is a senior Bioengineering student. Joined the Valpo research team to expand his wet lab experience through the synthesis of perovskites and to grow his engineering knowledge outside of his regular studies.

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