The machine, called the Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5) consists of two chambers separated by rotating rings of cerium oxide. As the rings spin, a large parabolic mirror concentrates solar energy onto one side, heating it to 1500 °C and causing the cerium oxide there to release oxygen gas into one of the chambers, whence it is pumped away.
As the ring rotates further it takes the deoxygenated ring off the heat and allows it to cool before it swings round to the other chamber. CO2 is pumped into the second chamber, causing the cooled cerium to steal back an oxygen molecule, producing carbon monoxide and cerium oxide.
The process also works with water instead of CO2, with the reaction this time producing hydrogen.
Experiments late last year with a 14-ring reactor have demonstrated that the process can produce carbon monoxide, although the failure of certain parts meant the device did not operate continuously for more than a few seconds at a time.
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