Advanced Thermionic Technology Program: summary report. Volume 3. Final report

Technical Report · Mon Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1984

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5653986· OSTI ID:5653986

This report summarizes the progress made by the Advanced Thermionic Technology Program during the past several years. This Program, sponsored by the US Department of Energy, has had as its goal adapting thermionic devices to generate electricity in a terrestrial (i.e., combustion) environment. Volume 3 (Part D) contains the results of systems studies of primary interest to those involved in identifying and evaluating applications for thermionics. As a general rule of thumb, cogeneration technologies are most attractive to industries when those technologies naturally produce a ration of electrical to thermal output which closely matches the demand within the industrial facilities themselves. Several of the industries which consume the largest amounts of energy have an electrical-to-thermal ratio of about ten percent, as can be seen in Exhibit D-1.1. This closely matches the electrical efficiency of thermionic converters. Thermionic cogeneration has several other unique advantages relative to alternative technologies for cogeneration which should lead to a much broader application of cogeneration in industry. These advantages accrue from the much higher temperatures at which thermionic energy conversion takes place, its suitability for very small as well as large process heaters, and, of course, its production of direct heat rather than process steam. In fact, thermionics can even be coupled to more conventional cogeneration technologies (e.g., steam turbines) to extend their applicability to processes requiring a greater electrical-to-thermal ratio than either cogeneration technology alone can provide. Several examples of thermionic cogeneration are presented in greater detail: copper refining by the Noranda process; thermionic topping cycles for gas turbine; and combined cycle and fossil-fuel steam power plants. 13 refs., 71 figs.

• Research Organization: Thermo Electron Corp., Waltham, MA (USA); Rasor Associates, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76ET11292; AC21-83MC20352
• OSTI ID: 5653986
• Report Number(s): DOE/ET/11292-1893-Vol.3; TE-4258-5-84-Vol.3; ON: DE85009360
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
300401* -- Thermionic Converters-- Design & Development
COGENERATION
COMBINED-CYCLE POWER PLANTS
COPPER
DATA
DEUS
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY
ENERGY BALANCE
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
ENERGY SYSTEMS
GAS TURBINES
HEAT
HEAT PIPES
HIGH TEMPERATURE
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INDUSTRY
INFORMATION
MACHINERY
MATERIAL BALANCE
METALS
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
NUMERICAL DATA
POWER GENERATION
POWER PLANTS
PROCESS HEAT
PROCESSING
REFINING
SMELTING
STEAM GENERATION
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
THERMIONIC CONVERTERS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
TURBINES
TURBOMACHINERY
VERY HIGH TEMPERATURE