Endoreversible model of thermal to radiative energy converters

摘要

In this work, we present a general endoreversible model to calculate the efficiency and the output power of energy emissive harvesters. Our model improves previous models since it includes the entropy losses associated to the energy transport happening in the energy emissive harvesters. Our model is developed for both harvesters exchanging energy with the environment through the full spectrum and when the exchange is mediated by a bandgap. For cells exchanging energy through a bandgap, we use the concept of electronic temperature previously introduced by Strandberg to model the operation of the cells at different polarization voltages and to make a model for thermoradiative cells. We calculate the output power and the efficiency of cold-carrier emissive energy harvesters working at temperatures between 300 and 500 K in environments with temperatures between 50 and 300 K. In the last part of the paper, we calculate the output power and the efficiency of thermoradiative cells working at different polarization voltages. We compare our results to those obtained in the works of Byrnes and Strandberg. Published by AIP Publishing.