Thermal designing of an inner electrode type alkali metal thermal to electric conversion (AMTEC) cell is discussed. The inner electrode type is a method of depositing cathodes inside beta”-alumina solid electrolyte (BASE) tubes. The proposed inner electrode type cell is characterized by its enhanced heat exchange characteristics and its simple structure without bonding of solid electrolyte ceramic and metal parts. A method of using non sintered graphite powder as a wick has been proposed. The maximum capillary force and flow resistance were measured, and using the obtained data, the inner electrode type cell was designed. A cell efficiency of 19％ at a temperature condition of 950 K - 500 K was calculated. Compared to the outer electrode type, the output power is increased by 2 times and the efficiency is improved by 25%. The examined result of thermal designing showed that the wick performance and the distance between the high and low temperature sides greatly affect the conversion efficiency. The calculated efficiency of the cell with a distance of 100 mm is η= 19％, and with 200 mm it is η = 24％.

The formation and decomposition of aromatic hydrocarbon is important for understanding the reaction in coal gasifiers. There are few reports about the formation and decomposition of aromatic hydrocarbons from fuel in pressurized drop tube furnace (PDTF) reactor which was operated under sufficiently dilute condition to neglect the interaction between hydrocarbon and char. So we measured the hydrocarbon formation and decomposition from 4 high-volatile coals with fixed carbon over volatile matter ratio ranging from 0.94 to 1.53, using a dilute PDTF. PDTF was operated under a pressurized condition of 1.0 MPa at 1273 K and the residence time was varied from 0.5 to 1.5 s. Applying first-order reaction kinetics for decomposition of aromatic hydrocarbons, it was estimated that higher volatile coal yielded more initial formation of higher carbon number aromatic hydrocarbons.

Herein we focused on homogenization of heavy tar and three types of plastics (polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS ) by thermal co-treatment to prepare feedstock for liquid fuel production. The heterogeneous mixture was treated with different solvents at 300 °C for reaction times ranging from 0 to 3 h under N2 atmosphere to produce liquefied feedstock. Pretreatment results for the different PS ratios indicated the carbon recovery values for the liquefied products. Further, the synergetic effects of the heavy tar and PS mixture significantly increased the concentrations of components such as ethylbenzene and (1-methylethyl)benzene. Moreover, thermal treatment of the heavy tar and plastic mixture with acetone resulted in ketone fractionation to form 4-methyl-4-penten-2-one and 4-methyl-3-penten-2-one. Additionally, the results indicated that the thermal co-treatment of heavy tar and other plastics (PE and PP) with various solvents generated less quantities of the liquefied product. Finally, the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis indicated that reaction times did not significant affect the product distributions of the liquefied product.