Liquid-fuel thermionic battlefield generators

We propose to develop highly efficient, compact thermal systems to enable high-performance solid-state energy conversion based on thermionics. Thermionic energy converters have the potential to leapfrog competing small-scale generation in power density and efficiency , but have been largely neglected for decades. These advantages of thermionics enable us to build lightweight fuel-flexible generators, with minimal-service requirements and extended lifetimes. Spark has been selected as a finalist in the Army’s Expeditionary Technology Search (xTechSearch) 2.0 competition and plans to demonstrate a fully encapsulated generator with a propane burner at the 2019 Association of the United States Army (AUSA) annual meeting in October. In order to build a such contained generator system which and can be operated with readily available fuels, we propose the following tasks: 1) development of fuel input system concept allowing operation with battlefield fuels, i.e. flexible use of liquid petroleum distillates (JP-8, diesel) , and 2) (Option) integration of auxiliary systems such as fuel pumps, air supply systems, and ignitors. These tasks will de-risk the two main challenges we anticipate during generator integration.