Design and global optimization of high-efficiency thermophotovoltaic systems

Despite their great promise, small experimental thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems at 1000 K generally exhibit extremely low power conversion efficiencies (approximately 1%), due to heat losses such as thermal emission of undesirable mid-wavelength infrared radiation. Photonic crystals (PhC) have the...

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Dades bibliogràfiques
Autors principals: Bermel, Peter A., Ghebrebrhan, Michael, Chan, Walker R., Yeng, YiXiang, Araghchini, Mohammad, Hamam, Rafif E., Marton, Christopher Henry, Jensen, Klavs F., Soljacic, Marin, Joannopoulos, John D., Johnson, Steven G., Celanovic, Ivan
Altres autors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies
Format: Article
Idioma:en_US
Publicat: Optical Society of America 2011
Accés en línia:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/60925
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7327-4967
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7184-5831
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7244-3682
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7192-580X
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3986-209X
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7232-4467
Descripció
Sumari:Despite their great promise, small experimental thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems at 1000 K generally exhibit extremely low power conversion efficiencies (approximately 1%), due to heat losses such as thermal emission of undesirable mid-wavelength infrared radiation. Photonic crystals (PhC) have the potential to strongly suppress such losses. However, PhC-based designs present a set of non-convex optimization problems requiring efficient objective function evaluation and global optimization algorithms. Both are applied to two example systems: improved micro-TPV generators and solar thermal TPV systems. Micro-TPV reactors experience up to a 27-fold increase in their efficiency and power output; solar thermal TPV systems see an even greater 45-fold increase in their efficiency (exceeding the Shockley–Quiesser limit for a single-junction photovoltaic cell).