Search Results

The Alkali Metel Thermo - Electric Conversion (AMTEC) technology is one of the candidates to realize the high performance power generation plant using the various kind of thermal energy. For the terrestrial application of the AMTEC, various types of power generation systems are considered to be adaptable. In this paper, we present the conceptual design of the AMTEC module that is adaptable for the above terrestrial power plant, and the results of basic evaluation of the thermal performance of the AMTEC. On the basis of the above results, we evaluate the performance of three types of power generation plants. They are the simple AMTEC plant, the combined plant with the steam turbine and the combined plant with the Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC). It is shown that the thermal efficiency of the combined plant with the SOFC is expected to be over 60%, even if the thermal efficiency of the simple AMTEC system is about 37%.

The sodium β″-Al2O3 is one of the prime candidate as the solid state electrolyte in using the Alkali Metal Thermo-Electric Converter (AMTEC). This paper reports the properties of β″-Al2O3/ZrO2 composite electrolyte in order to improve the durability of the cell and its performance for the power generation as the AMTEC. It is shown that the addition of ZrO2 to the β″-Al2O3 is able to control the microstructure, and the fabrication procedure of the electrolyte with the ZrO2 addition is selected. This paper also reports the new concepts of the AMTEC cells that are connected in series in order to raise generation voltage and shows that the adaptability of the AMTEC for terrestrial power generation is improved by these concept.