Experimental Facilities for Schenectady Pile

Brooks, Heather

doi:10.2172/4352209

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…This optimum occurs because of the relative trade-off between thermalization losses in the bottom cell (InGaAs cell) vs. the fictitious topping cell. The addition of this second TPV cell increases the overall efficiency by an additional 5% indicating that the potential exists to cross the critical barrier of 60% 114,115 and conceptually, additional materials could increase this even more.…”

Section: Paper Energy and Environmental Sciencementioning

confidence: 98%

Thermophotovoltaics: a potential pathway to high efficiency concentrated solar power

Seyf

Henry

2016

Energy Environ. Sci.

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A high temperature thermophotovoltaic (TPV) system is modeled and its system level performance is assessed in the context of concentrated solar power (CSP) with thermal energy storage (TES). The model includes treatment of the emitter and the heat transfer fluid that draws thermal energy from the TES, which then allows for identification and prioritization of the most important TPV cell/module level properties that should be optimized to achieve maximum performance. The upper limiting efficiency for an idealized system is then calculated, which shows that TPV with TES may one day have the potential to become competitive with combined cycle turbines, but could also offer other advantages that would give CSP an advantage over fossil based alternatives. The system concept is enabled by the usage of liquid metal as a high temperature heat transfer and TES fluid. The system concept combines the great economic advantages of TES with the potential for low cost and high performance derived from TPV cells fabricated on reusable substrates, with a high reflectivity back reflector for photon recycling.

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Section: Paper Energy and Environmental Sciencementioning

confidence: 98%

Thermophotovoltaics: a potential pathway to high efficiency concentrated solar power

Seyf

Henry

2016

Energy Environ. Sci.

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“…The incoming gas must be heated to approximately 250 °C for carrying out selective oxidation to methanol. As most remote plants generate electricity from the gas turbine, the exhaust gas from the gas turbine exits around 550 °C and can be used as the heat source for the proposed system . The oxidation of methane at the anode produces methanol and protons.…”

Section: System Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying Material and Device Targets for a Flare Gas Recovery System Utilizing Electrochemical Conversion of Methane to Methanol

Promoppatum

Viswanathan

2016

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

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Natural gas flaring causes enormous damage to the environment, in addition to the wasted energy. The importance of this problem is highlighted by an initiative by the United Nations to end flaring by 2030. There exists an immediate need for identifying routes for converting flare into usable energy. In this study, we propose a scheme that at the core utilizes an electrochemical cell to convert methane into methanol, an easily transportable fuel. The electrochemical cell uses electricity provided by solar photovoltaics to power the electrochemical cell. We carry out a detailed techno-economic analysis of the entire system and analyze the merits and demerits of the proposed approach as compared with other flare gas recovery systems, gas-to-liquid (GTL), electricity generation with gas turbine, gas compression system, and electricity generation by solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The developed model shows that the current state-of-the-art materials available for different system components, proton conductor, and electrocatalysts are inadequate to make the scheme practical. We outline the minimum performance metrics, i.e., input voltage at the cell level of ∼0.5 V that corresponds to an overpotential of ∼1 V and a current density of 0.5 A/cm2 that requires a proton conductor that can conduct from 10–1 to 10–2 S/cm in the temperature range of 100–250 °C, required for the system to become financially competitive. Of note, improvements in the conductivity of proton conductors at intermediate temperatures and identification of active and selective electrocatalysts for the conversion of methane to methanol are the key parameters that determine the overall viability of the proposed scheme. We discuss the environmental impacts of the proposed scheme and provide an outlook on directions required in materials research that could meet the outlined performance metrics.

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Experimental Facilities for Schenectady Pile

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Thermophotovoltaics: a potential pathway to high efficiency concentrated solar power

Thermophotovoltaics: a potential pathway to high efficiency concentrated solar power

Identifying Material and Device Targets for a Flare Gas Recovery System Utilizing Electrochemical Conversion of Methane to Methanol

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