Thermionic cogeneration is developing as a new energy conservation option. The characteristics of thermionic systems using combustion of natural gas as heat source are studied. The - until now unused - high temperature potential of fuels can be applied in order to extract work using the high temperature thermionic conversion process. The high temperature of the emitter and the required large heat flux to it demand a high radiation temperature of the burner walls. As natural gas can only just reach these requirements the resulting system efficiency drops to an intolerable low level if the combustion air is not preheated and the heat from the flue gasses is not recuperated. An analytical study shows the effects of using the collector cooling air to preheat the combustion air and the influence of the heat exchanging capacities of the recuperator and the burner walls. It is shown that using the collector cooling air leads to a partial increase of the system performance and that using a recuperator increases the performance to the maximum attainable value. The geometry of the recuperator is discussed.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Combustion Heated Thermionic Systems


    Additional title:

    Sae Technical Papers


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    27th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference (1992) ; 1992



    Publication date :

    1992-08-03




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




    A solar space powerplant with liquid metal heated thermionic converters

    BENTSEN, B. / BOLAN, P. / COHEN, R. | AIAA | 1964


    Two‐dimensional steady‐state analysis of an electrically heated thermionic fuel element

    Huimin Xue / El‐Genk, Mohamed S. / Paramonov, Dmitry | American Institute of Physics | 1993


    Thermionic nuclear reactor systems

    Kennel, E.B. | Tema Archive | 1986


    Transient and Steady-State Analyses of an Electrically Heated Topaz-II Thermionic Fuel Element

    Xue, Huimin / El-Genk, Mohamed S. | SAE Technical Papers | 1992


    Thermionic phenomena

    Richardson, O.W. | Engineering Index Backfile | 1932