A new heat engine with no moving parts is as efficient as a steam turbine

[Kamaji]

A new heat engine with no moving parts is as efficient as a steam turbine

Date:  April 13, 2022
Source:  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Summary:  Engineers have developed a heat engine with no moving parts that is as efficient as a steam turbine. The design could someday enable a fully decarbonized power grid, researchers say.

Engineers at MIT and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have designed a heat engine with no moving parts. Their new demonstrations show that it converts heat to electricity with over 40 percent efficiency -- a performance better than that of traditional steam turbines.

The heat engine is a thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cell, similar to a solar panel's photovoltaic cells, that passively captures high-energy photons from a white-hot heat source and converts them into electricity. The team's design can generate electricity from a heat source of between 1,900 to 2,400 degrees Celsius, or up to about 4,300 degrees Fahrenheit.

The researchers plan to incorporate the TPV cell into a grid-scale thermal battery. The system would absorb excess energy from renewable sources such as the sun and store that energy in heavily insulated banks of hot graphite. When the energy is needed, such as on overcast days, TPV cells would convert the heat into electricity, and dispatch the energy to a power grid.

With the new TPV cell, the team has now successfully demonstrated the main parts of the system in separate, small-scale experiments. They are working to integrate the parts to demonstrate a fully operational system. From there, they hope to scale up the system to replace fossil-fuel-driven power plants and enable a fully decarbonized power grid, supplied entirely by renewable energy.

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Source:  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220413131137.htm

[sneakypete]

No such critter as an engine with no moving parts.

What you have with  steam heat in a compressed state with no pressure relief valve is a bomb,and bombs have LOTS of moving parts.

[Kamaji]

No such critter as an engine with no moving parts.

What you have with  steam heat in a compressed state with no pressure relief valve is a bomb,and bombs have LOTS of moving parts.

There is in this case.  Read the article.

[Free Vulcan]

I guess this would be a good co-generation setup with an already existing heat source.

[sneakypete]

There is in this case.  Read the article.

@Kamaji

You can't produce steam without water and heat. Boiling water produces pressure.

[DB]

I guess this would be a good co-generation setup with an already existing heat source.

That "heat source" has to be pretty damn hot! Significantly hotter than the temperature iron melts at.

[DB]

@Kamaji

You can't produce steam without water and heat. Boiling water produces pressure.

It generates electricity from heat without any moving parts.

[sneakypete]

It generates electricity from heat without any moving parts.

@DB

Something has to move to create electricity,even if it is just molecules under pressure.

[Kamaji]

@Kamaji

You can't produce steam without water and heat. Boiling water produces pressure.

It’s not steam operated. 

[sneakypete]

It’s not steam operated.

@Kamaji

Ok,then this thing is a complete mystery to me. How can it possibly produce power without pressure of some sort,usually steam powered?

[DB]

@DB

Something has to move to create electricity,even if it is just molecules under pressure.

Only the electrons need to move in one direction. Just like a solar cell.

[Hoodat]

I'm not getting this:

The first layer captures a heat source's highest-energy photons and converts them into electricity, while lower-energy photons that pass through the first layer are captured by the second and converted to add to the generated voltage. Any photons that pass through this second layer are then reflected by the mirror, back to the heat source, rather than being absorbed as wasted heat.

The team tested the cell's efficiency by placing it over a heat flux sensor -- a device that directly measures the heat absorbed from the cell. They exposed the cell to a high-temperature lamp and concentrated the light onto the cell.

I am not understanding what temperature has to do with this since it is a photo-voltaic cell, unless it is one that generates electricity at the IR spectrum.  At which point it relies on the lower-energy photons (IR) and not the higher-energy (visible light) ones.

[Sighlass]

They have had these out for a few years now with whimpy fans that sit on your wood stove/insert/heater that capture lower temps (150-600 degrees) with a Thermoelectric generator. These seem to be an improvement (5%-20% efficiency to this 40%) but require much higher temps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_generator