Summary of the 5th Conference of Thermophotovoltaic Generation of

1、summary of the 5th conference of thermophotovoltaic generation of electricity, rome 15th 19th september 2002 thomas bauer, northumbria photovoltaics applications centre (npac), school of engineering and technologynorthumbria university, newcastle upon tyne, ne1 8st, uk, thomas.bauerunn.ac.ukintroduc

2、tion to thermophotovoltaicsthermophotovoltaics (tpv) is the use of the photovoltaic effect to generate electricity from a high temperature thermal source. in general a tpv system consists of a heat source, a radiator and photovoltaic cells. heat sources are the sun, radioisotopes, industrial waste h

3、eat or, most commonly, the combustion of fossil fuel. typically the temperature of a radiator (also called emitter) ranges from 1300 to 2000 k, which leads to a theoretical hemispherical total radiation per unit area of maximum about 16 to 91 w/cm2 according to the stefan-boltzmann law. the pv cells

4、 convert part of the radiation in a certain wavelength range and typically high wavelength radiation is reflected back to the heat source by some form of spectral control to increase the tpv system efficiency. in principle tpv can operate in a very wide power range (starting from a few watts with no

5、 limitations in principle for higher power outputs). however, most research is carried out in the 10w to 10kw range, because of other competing technologies outside this range. for small power (<10w) competition arises mostly from batteries, whereas in the large power range (>10kw) devices inc

6、luding internal combustion engines or turbines combined with a generator compete.micron-gap tpv (mtpv) research started at the late 90s. mtpv makes use of enhanced heat transfer (higher than the heat transfer limited by plancks radiation law) for very close spaced arrangements of radiator and photov

7、oltaic cell (in the order of 0.1 m).the most developed pv cells for tpv are polycrystalline silicon cells, indium gallium arsenide and gallium antimonide, which aim commonly for an electrical power density of about 1 w/cm2 (compared to about 0.01-0.02 w/cm2 for non-concentrator solar applications).

8、the us company, jx-crystal, produces gallium antimonide cells and builds a commercially available tpv system (midnight sun® heating stove).the conferencethe conference on thermophotovoltaic generation of electricity is the only major international event on thermophotovoltaics (tpv) research. th

9、e fifth conference was the first conference held outside the us and rome was chosen as the venue. the entire tpv research community may have a few hundred representatives, whereas approximately 90 researchers attended at the conference presenting approximately 50 papers. most of the research has bee

10、n carried out in the usa for military applications. other countries (all with non-military research interest) presenting at the conference were japan, canada, russia and western european countries (uk, italy, germany, switzerland, ireland, spain and sweden). the american institute of physics publish

11、es the proceedings of the conference. the expected date of publication of the fifth conference is in the beginning of 2003. the sixth conference is expected to be in freiburg, germany in 18 months.summary of presented research at the conference the major subject areas represented at the conference w

12、ere the three tpv system components (heat source, radiator and pv cell) and the form of spectral control. for each aspect concepts and technologies were discussed describing their various limitations and qualities.at the conference cell research concentrated on the following materials:· gallium

13、 antimonide (with various institutes including rensselaer polytechnic institute, us; fraunhofer institute for solar energy systems and hahn-meitner-institut, germany)· indium gallium arsenide (with various institutes including imperial college, uk; nmrc, ireland; bechtel bettis, inc., us)·

14、 indium gallium arsenide antimonide (with various us institutes bechtel bettis, sarnoff corporation, massachusetts institute of technology)· other cell materials of interest were germanium, ingaasn, ingasb, inassbp and algaassb.the major aim of the cell research was to extend the wavelength ran

15、ge of photovoltaic cells towards longer wavelengths. at the conference cells with spectral responses up to 2.6 m were shown, which allows operation at lower radiator temperatures. modelling of photovoltaic cells was also reported.various different approaches for spectral control were presented, incl

16、uding reflector layer within the pv cell (“buried reflector”), selective radiators (e.g. micro structured tungsten, ceramics containing rare earth metals or thin film radiators) or filters (e.g. rugate filter). each of the spectral control approaches has its own drawbacks such as costs, durability o

17、r problems to operate in a wide range of angles or temperatures.the combustion of gas (natural, propane or methane) was the most commonly mentioned heat source together with some work on wood and diesel combustion. no work was presented for solar and radioisotope heat sources. in the past the design

18、 of burners for uniform heating of the radiator has been shown to be complex. at the conference, it was proposed (jx-crystal) that commercially available radiant tube burners could be used to simplify system design.research groups working on combustion system designs and the partial commercialisatio

19、n of these were represented at the conference. these included, eptech - continuing the work started at abb (italy), jx-crystal inc. (us), paul scherrer institute (switzerland), us army, fraunhofer institute for solar energy systems (germany), solar energy research center (sweden) and a european proj

20、ect to build a hybrid car with fiat as an industrial partner (rev project). at the conference aspects of tpv systems including the construction, component selection, modelling, cost estimation and efficiency calculation, were presented. the major problems in the design of most tpv systems were seen

21、in the selection and optimisation of the components, with the radiator as the most critical component. a realistic aim of system efficiency (defined as the electrical power output to chemical fuel energy) of different combustion tpv systems was seen around or above 10 %.mtpv research was presented f

22、rom a few groups including the massachusetts institute of technology and the charles stark draper laboratory. the number of publications at this conference concerned with mtpv increased compared to the previous conference. at the end of the conference the two emerging technologies, thermoelectrics a

23、nd fuel cells, were discussed. both technologies operate in the same power range as tpv and were seen as potential competitors. summary of the presented work from npacthe presented work aimed to provide an overview of heat recovery by tpv from industrial high-temperature processes and uses the glass

24、 industry in the uk as an example. the work is part of a study of potential industrial applications of tpv in the uk being carried out by the northumbria photovoltaics applications centre (npac).so far only a few publications suggest the use of tpv for high-temperature industrial heat recovery and a

25、t the conference there was one more presentation bringing up tpv in a glass furnace. tpv heat recovery should allow less complex and higher efficient systems compared to combustion tpv systems, because the heat source is not part of the tpv system and the high-temperature process itself act as a hea

26、t source.the presented work reviews relevant facts about the glass industry and tpv technology. it then identified locations of use for tpv. these were assessed in terms of glass sector, furnace type, process temperature, impact on the existing process, power scale and development effort of tpv. var

27、ious locations within glass production with a suitable temperature range have been identified. small-scale applications on the side walls of the glass line, the throat, the float glass conditioning zone and float glass chamber, furnace openings, redesigned burners and the forehearth could be used to

28、 test and launch tpv technology and to offer a reliable grid-independent power supply on the glass site. the large-scale applications on furnace walls and in the regenerator are possible locations to provide energy efficiency improvements on a glass site. at the presentation and in the publication t

29、echnical difficulties for the implementation of tpv at large-scale locations were discussed. if these difficulties can be overcome, the large-scale use of tpv heat recovery in the uk glass industry could provide about 21% of the site electricity on average and reduce energy related co2 emissions by

30、about 6%. other high temperature industries can be assessed with a similar methodology and would be expected to show similar potential.further reading· conference on thermophotovoltaic generation of electricity abstracts of the fifth conference: conference proceedings of the pre

31、vious conferences: /· coutts, t. j.: a review of progress in thermophotovoltaic generation of electricity, nat. renewable energy lab., usa, renewable-&-sustainable-energy-reviews. vol. 3, no. 2-3; june-sept., p. 77-184, 1999, (up to now, full article available from

32、)· barnham, k.; connolly, j.; rohr, k.: thermophotovoltaic special issue, semiconductor science and technology, /journals/sst, april 2003presented publications· hamlen, r.: portable and mobile power for the army, us army cecom, myer center, fort monmouth, usa· nelson, r.: t

33、pv systems and state-of-the-art development, quantum group inc., usa· beausang, j.; raynolds, j.e.: thermodynamic analysis of thermophotovoltaic efficiency and power density tradeoffs, lockheed-martin, inc., usa· bitnar, b.; durisch, w.; mayor, j.-c.; sigg, h.; tschudi, h. r.; palfinger, g

34、.; gobrecht, j.: record electricity-to-gas power efficiency of a silicon solar cell based tpv system, paul scherrer institut, switzerland· palfinger, g.; bitnar, b.; durisch, w.; mayor, j.-c.; grützmacher, d.; gobrecht, j.: cost estimates of electricity from a tpv residential heating syste

35、m, paul scherrer institut, switzerland, · fraas, l.1; avery, j.1; malfa, e.2; wuenning, j. g.3: thermophotovoltaics for combined heat and power using low nox gas fired radiant tube burners, 1jx crystals inc, usa; 2abb ricerca, italy; 3ws inc, germany · qiu, k.; hayden, a.c.s.: electric pow

36、er generation using low bandgap tpv cells in a gas-fired heating furnace, advanced combustion technologies (act), canmet energy technology center, natural resources canada, canada· fraas, l.1; avery, j.1; malfa, e.2; venturino, m.2: tpv based mini-chp configuration for residential and small ind

37、ustrial applications, 1jx crystals inc, usa; 2abb service s.r.l., sesto s. giovanni, italy· durisch, w.; bitnar, b.; roth, f.; palfinger, g.: small thermophotovoltaic prototype systems, paul scherrer institute, switzerland · aschaber, j.1; hebling. c.2; luther, j.2: the challenge of realis

38、tic tpv system modelling, 1freiburger materials research center, germany; 2fraunhofer institute for solar energy systems, germany · horne, w. e.1; morgan, m. d.1; sundaram, v. s.1; butcher, t.2: a 500 watt diesel fueled tpv portable power supply, 1edtek, inc., usa; 2brookhaven national laborato

39、ry, usa· bauer, t.; forbes, i.; penlington, r.; pearsall, n.: the potential of thermophotovoltaic heat recovery for the glass industry, northumbria photovoltaics applications centre (npac), school of engineering, university of northumbria, uk · katsunori hanamura; tomoyuki kumano: thermoph

40、otovoltaic power generation by super-adiabatic combustion in porous quartz glass, dept. of mechanical and systems engineering, gifu university, japan · gombert, a.: an overview of tpv emitter technologies, fraunhofer institute for solar energy systems, germany · diso, d.1; licciulli, a.2;

41、bianco, a.2; leo, g.1; torsello, g.1; tundo, s.1; sinisi, m.3; larizza, p.3; mazzer, m.1: selective emitters for high efficiency tpv conversion: materials preparation and characterisation, 1cnr-ime campus universitario, italy; 2dip. di ingegneria dell'innovazione univ. di lecce - campus universi

42、tario, italy; 3masmec s.r.l. via dei gigli, italy · good, b. s.; chubb, d. l.: theoretical comparison of erbium-, holmium- and thulium-doped aluminum garnet selective emitters, national aeronautics and space administration, john h. glenn research center, usa · hitoshi sai1; hiroo yugami1;

43、yoshiaki kanamori2; kazuhiro hane2: spectrally selective emitters with deep rectangular cavities fabricated with fast atom beam etching, 1department of machine intelligence and systems engineering, tohoku university, japan; 2department of mechatronics and precision engineering, tohoku university, ja

44、pan · schlemmer, c.1; aschaber, j.1; boerner, v.2; gombert, a.2; hebling, c.2; luther, j.2: thermal stability of microstructured selective tungsten emitters, 1freiburger materialforschungszentrum, germany 2fraunhofer institute for solar energy systems, germany · chubb, d. l.1; wolford, d.

45、s.1; meulenberg, a.2; dimatteo, r. s.2: semiconductor silicon as a selective emitter, 1nasa glenn research center, usa; 2the charles draper laboratory, usa · nasi, l.1; tundo, s.2; lazzarini, l1; ferrari, c1; passaseo, a.3; mazzer, m.2; salviati, g.1; barnham, k.4; daukes, n. e.4; rohr, c.4; ab

46、bot, p.4; clarke, g.5: a microstructural study of ingaas/ingaas strain-balanced mqw for tpv applications, 1cnr-imem institute, italy; 2cnr-ime institute, italy; 3infm unità di lecce, italy; 4blackett laboratory, imperial college, uk; 5iqe europe, cardiff, uk · aschaber, j.1; schlegl, t.2;

47、schlemmer, c.2; hebling, c.2; luther, j.2: micro tpv system concept with a selective microstructured tungsten emitter, 1freiburger materials research center, germany; 2fraunhofer institute for solar energy systems, germany · abbott, p.1; rohr, c.1; connolly, j. p.1; ballard, i.1; barnham, k. w.

48、 j.1; ginige, r.2; clarke, g.3; mazzerd, m.4: characterisation of strain-compensated ingaas/ingaas quantum well cells for tpv applications, 1exss physics, blackett laboratory, imperial college, u.k.;2nmrc, university college, cork, eire; 3iqe europe ltd., cardiff uk; 4ime-cnr, university of lecce, i

49、taly · lindberg, e.; broman, l.: non-imaging optics in a thermophotovoltaic generator, solar energy research center serc, department of energy, environment, and civil engineering, dalarna university, sweden · dimatteo, r. s.1; greiff, p.1; finberg, s. l.1; young-waithe, k. a.2; choy, h. k.

50、 h.2; fonstad, c. g.2: introduction to and experimental demonstration of micron-gap thermophotovoltaics (mtpv), 1the charles stark draper laboratory, inc., usa; 2department of electrical engineering and computer science, massachusetts institute of technology, usa · torsello, g.1; lomascolo, m.3

51、; bianco, a.2; licciulli, a.2; tundo, s.2; diso, d.3; mazzer, m.3: fundamental studies on non radiative processes in ceramic selective emitter materials for tpv application, 1dipartimento di fisica, universita di lecce, italy; 2dipartimento ingegneria dei material, universita di lecce, italy; 3cnr-i

52、mm, italy · ortabasi, u.1; bovard, b. g.2: rugate technology for thermophotovoltaic (tpv) applications a new approach to near perfect filter performance, 1united innovations, inc., usa; 2rockwell scientific, usa · bierley, j. m.; gopinath, a.: a parametric design study of ingaas micro-ther

53、mo-photovoltaic (mtpv) cells coupled with various emitters at near and far spacings, department of mechanical engineering, code me/gk, naval postgraduate school, usa · wernsman, b.; mahorter, r. g.; thomas, r. m.: optical cavity effects on tpv efficiency, bechtel bettis, inc., usa · andree

54、v, v. m.: an overview of tpv cell technologies, ioffe physico-technical institute, 26 polytechnicheskaya, russia · palmisiano, m.n.1; biefeld, r. m.2; cederberg, j. g.2; hafich, m. j.2; peake, g. m.2: development of ingaassb based monolithic interconnected modules (mims), 1bechtel bettis, inc.,

55、 usa; 2sandia national laboratory, usa · shellenbarger, z.; taylor, g. c.; smeltzer, r. k.; yu, y.; martinelli, r. u.; palit, k.; channin, d. j.: multi-wafer growth of ingaassb for tpv cells, sarnoff corporation, usa · wang, c. a.1; vineis, c. j.1 , huang, r. h.1; connors, m. k.1; choi, h.

56、 k.3; danielson, l. r.2; nichols, g.2: gainassb materials for thermophotovoltaic devices, 1lincoln laboratory, massachusetts institute of technology, usa; 2lockheed martin corporation, usa; 3kopin corp. usa · smeltzer, r. k.; taylor, g. c.; shellenbarger, z.; martinelli, r. u.; yu, y.; palit, k

57、.; channin, d. j.: high performance ingaassb thermophotovoltaic cells, sarnoff corporation, usa · rohr, c.1; abbott, p.1; ballard, i.1; connolly, j. p.1; barnham, k. w. j.1; nasi, l.2; ferrari, c.2; lazzarini, l.2; salviati, g.2; roberts, j.3; tundo, s.4; mazzer, m.5: strain-compensated ingaas/

58、ingaas quantum well cells with 2um band-edge, 1exss physics, blackett laboratory, imperial college, uk; 2maspec cnr, italy; 3epsrc iii-v facility, university of sheffield, uk; 4dip. ingegneria dellinnovazione, university of lecce, italy; 5ime-cnr, university of lecce, italy · ginige, r.1; kelle

59、her, c.1; corbett, b.1; hilgarth, j.2; clarke, g.3: the design, fabrication and evaluation of ingaas/inp tpv cells for commercial applications, 1nmrc, ireland; 2rwe solar gmbh, germany; iqe, cardiff, uk · karlina, l. b.1; blagnov, p. a.1; kulagina, m. m.1; vlasov, a. s.1; vargas-aburto, c.2; ur

60、ibe, r. m.2: zinc (p) diffusion in inxga1-xas and gasb for tpv devices, 1ioffe physical-technical institute, russia; 2school of technology, kent state university, usa · andreev, v. m.; khvostikov, v. p.; khvostikova, o. v.; oliva, e. v.; rumyantsev, v. d.; shvarts, m. z.; tabarov, t. s.: low band gap ge and inassbp/inas-based tpv cells, ioffe physical-tech