Doped ceria for efficient solar thermochemical fuel production via H2O and CO2 splitting: Bridging materials design and redox performance
Rahul R. BHOSALE
Abstract. The transition from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives demands efficient syngas production pathways. Thermochemical cycles based on metal oxide (MO) provide a workable method for CO2 splitting at lower temperatures, with Zr-doped ceria (Ce0.8Zr0.2O2, CZ20) identified as a highly promising redox material. While its redox performance has been experimentally validated, detailed thermodynamic efficiency analyses remain limited. This study develops a process model for the two-step CZ20-driven CO2 splitting (CDS) cycle and evaluates solar-to-fuel efficiency using thermogravimetric data. CZ20 released 8.99 × 10⁻3 mol O2/mol during reduction at 1673 K and produced 1.72 × 10⁻² mol CO/mol during re-oxidation at 1273 K, corresponding to a Δδ of ~1.72 × 10⁻². Energy balance calculations revealed that increasing gas-to-gas heat recuperation from 0.0 to 0.3 lowered solar heat demand from 464.1 kW to 345.0 kW, improving solar-to-fuel efficiency from 1.05% to 1.41%.
Keywords
Ceria, Thermochemical, H2O and CO2 Splitting, Materials, Redox Cycle
Published online 6/20/2026, 9 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Rahul R. BHOSALE, Doped ceria for efficient solar thermochemical fuel production via H2O and CO2 splitting: Bridging materials design and redox performance, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 67, pp 31-39, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904176-5
The article was published as article 5 of the book Climate Action and Sustainability
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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