アルカリ金属熱電変換の電極部変換効率の実験的評価

抄録

The alkali metal thermal to electric converter (AMTEC) system which utlizes the sodium ion conductivity of beta"-alumina solid electrolyte (BASE) is expected to have high conversion efficiency above 30% including practical heat loss. However, the achieved experimental efficiency have been around 15%. In this paper, current voltage characteristics and heat and mass transfer processes on a single cell have been examined experimentally and thermal electrode conversion efficiency has been discussed. Measured electrode conversion efficiency without thermal losses showed that it was about 40% at a power density of 0.3 W/cm². A theoretical analysis on the thermal losses has also been conducted and these losses are estimated 0.3 W/cm² in a practical tube type cell, so it is obtained that the actual cell system efficiency of 30% will be expected.