Solar reactor scaling up:: the fullerene synthesis case study

This paper aims at the optimum design of a solar reactor for carbon product processing by vaporization. The chosen reference case is the CNRS 1 MW solar furnace and graphite vaporization for fullerene synthesis. The method, which accounts for heat transfer and chemical reaction kinetics, is based on the combination of both experimental data obtained at laboratory scale and numerical simulation. For this very high temperature process (carbon vaporization is only significant at temperatures higher than 3200 K), the optimum diameter of the target is 22 cm and the soot production ranges between 80 and 150 g/h for an effective power of 325 kW (P=240 h Pa). The model is validated by experiments using a 6 cm o.d. graphite target.