Thermophotovoltaic system

Claim 1

A combustor/regenerator process capable of operating at high temperature for sustained periods of time, that includes (a) feeding combustion reactants to a combustion zone, the reactants being fed to said zone at initial temperature T a and having enthalpy content H 1 , (b) adding recuperated heat Q r to the reactants fed to the combustion zone to raise the reactants temperature to T 2 , and to raise enthalpy content to H 2 , (c) combusting the reactants in said zone to produce reaction products at increased temperature T 3 and with enthalpy content H 3 ≅H 2 , (d) radiating heat from said zone at a rate characterized in that the radiation per unit area per unit time per unit mass of reaction products is q p , the total heat available for radiation being Q 34 =H 3 -H 4 where H 4 is the reduced enthalpy of the reaction products, and converting said radiated heat into photovoltaic produced electricity, (e) extracting Q r from said reaction products of combustion for return to the reactants as per (b) above, (f) removing the products of combustion as exhaust and at reduced temperature T e and enthalpy H 5 , (g) providing a bed of refractory particles adjacent said combustion zone, and (h) periodically reversing the direction of flow of reactant through said bed.