Conceptual Design of 500 watt portable thermophotovoltaic power supply using JP-8 fuel

Thermophotovoltaic system testing

“…The components of a >500 W, diesel powered TPV system, shown in figure 2, were designed, built and tested by McDermott Technologies [1][2][3]. This design utilized a cylindrical power converter that surrounded an emitter/radiator/burner element.…”

“…The refractory emitter has a low emissivity (<0.2) beyond 3.5 µm. The third technology enabler is the commercial availability of low-NO x SiC radiant tube burners operating up to 1250 • C. 1 Several changes to the radiant tube burner design are incorporated for TPV power systems to reduce losses at the ends of the tubes, increase the maximum operating temperature and incorporate the antireflection-coated emitter. A projected performance of 1.5 kW and an overall 12.3% fuel-to-electric system efficiency have been calculated using the radiant burner data, cell data and TracePro R modelling of the optical cavity.…”

Thermophotovoltaic systems for civilian and industrial applications in Japan

“…The main factor to lower its system efficiency is heat loss in combustion flue gases, if the TPV system is driven by combustion heat. Many researchers propose [29][30][31] that a thermal recuperator, which is a heat exchanger between TPV thermal efficiency dependence of energy saving ratio for a TPV cogeneration system as compared to a conventional system. η e represents TPV electric efficiency.…”