Author(s): F.A. Abou-Elfotouh and M.A. AI-mass'ari
Article publication date: 1984-03-01
Vol. 2 No. 1 (yearly), pp. 183-193.
129
Keywords
solar, power plant, heat transfer
Abstract
In this work a solar thermionic power plant is proposed and analyzed. The geometric configuration of the system, which based on the central thermal receiver tower concept, could be optimized to achieve an average concentration ratio more than 1800. In a laboratory model for the heat transfer system, the cathode of the thermionic diode is heated by a hot air flow supplied from the cavity. A silicon-carbide cavity with depth-to-width ratio 1.2 was found successful. By building a thermionic diode of 20 percent efficiency into a solar electric power system, the cost-per-unit-power output can be reduced by 3 to 5 percent