Energy Conversion and Management 44 (2003) 26252634

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Microscale combustion research for application to micro thermophotovoltaic systems

W.M. Yang
a b

a,*

, S.K. Chou a, C. Shu a, H. Xue b, Z.W. Li a, D.T. Li c, J.F. Pan

Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260 Department of Mechanical Engineering, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA 91768, USA c Faculty of Energy and Dynamics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China Received 30 August 2002; accepted 26 December 2002

Abstract A novel power MEMS concept, a micro thermophotovoltaic (TPV) system, is rst described in this work, which would use hydrogen as fuel and would be capable of delivering 310 W electrical power in a package less than 1 cubic centimeter in volume. A microcombustor is one of the most important components of a micro TPV system. A high and uniform temperature distribution along the wall of the microcombustor is required to get a high electrical power output. However, sustaining combustion in a MEMS size combustor will be largely aected by the increased heat losses due to the high surface to volume ratio, which tends to suppress ignition and quench the reaction. In order to test the feasibility of combustion in microdevices and determine the relevant factors aecting microcombustion, numerical and experimental work was performed. The results indicated that a high and uniform temperature could be achieved along the wall of the ame tube. 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Micro thermophotovoltaic system; Microcombustion; Photovoltaic array

1. Introduction With the demand for smaller scale and higher energy density power sources, traditional batteries cannot satisfy the need, which urges the development of micro power devices or power

Corresponding author. Tel.: +65-6874-4657; fax: +65-6779-1459. E-mail address: mpeywm@nus.edu.sg (W.M. Yang).

0196-8904/03/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0196-8904(03)00024-4

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Nomenclature A a b Cj Dah Ea _ m Nr ng nij P R Rk ri rk b rk f T V _j w pre-exponential factor for reaction rate constant constant concentration of jth gas phase species Damkohler number activation energy mass ow rate number of gas phase reactions total number of gas phase species reaction rate coecient of reaction i and species j in reaction power matrix pressure gas constant net dierence between rkf and rk b of k th reaction rate of reaction i backward reaction rate forward reaction rate temperature volume jth species generation rate

Greeks third body enhancement factor of jth species in ith reaction aij b temperature exponent stoichiometric coecient of species j in reaction k mjk sresidence residence time sreaction reaction time

MEMS. These systems use hydrogen or hydrocarbon as fuel and are characterized by thermal, electrical and mechanical power densities of 120 W in sub-centimeter size packages [15]. It is well known that the use of combustion processes for electrical power generation provides enormous advantages over batteries in terms of energy storage per unit mass and in terms of power generation per unit volume. Furthermore, the advantages of hydrocarbon fuels include low cost, improved voltage stability, no memory eect and instant recharge. The micro gas turbine engines, microrockets and micro rotary internal combustion engines are typical micro power devices being developed by MIT and Berkeley [14]. These microengines employ scaled down versions of existing macroscale devices, in particular internal combustion engines. However, at microscale, these devices experience more diculties with heat loss, friction, sealing, fabrication, assembly etc. than their macroscale counterparts. The microscale spiral counter ow heat recirculating combustor is another concept of power MEMS developed by Sitzki et al. [5]. It does not involve any moving parts. Electrical power is

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generated by thermoelectric elements embedded in the walls between cold reactants and hot products, but the three dimensional structures of a counter ow heat exchanger and combustor make the fabrication complex. In addition, the current thermoelectric technology only has a maximum energy conversion eciency of 4%.

2. Development of micro thermophotovoltaic system Dierent from the previous studies just mentioned, the ultimate goal of this research is to develop a novel micro power system, a micro thermophotovoltaic (TPV) system, which uses photovoltaic cells to convert heat radiation, e.g. from the combustion of fossil fuels, into electricity. The concept of TPV energy conversion was rst proposed in the 1960s [6,7]. It is only in recent years that technological improvements in the eld of low band gap photovoltaic cells and high temperature materials have evoked a renewed interest in TPV generation of electricity [8,9]. The micro TPV system we are developing originates from this concept. The micro TPV system consists of three main parts: a heat source, a micro ame tube combustor (the wall of the microcombustor would be made of selective emitting materials, such as Er3 Al5 O12 and Co doped MgO etc.) and a photovoltaic array made of low band gap materials, such as GaSb (0.72 eV), GaInAsSb (0.5 eV) and so on. Fig. 1 shows the basic design of the micro TPV system. The volume of the microcombustor is 71 mm3 . Hydrogen and air are mixed in a micromixer and then enter the microcombustor and combust. When the wall, i.e. the selective emitter, is heated to a suciently high temperature, it emits photons, most of them having an energy greater than the band gap energy of the photovoltaic materials due to the selective function of the emitter. Therefore, when they impinge on the photovoltaic array, they evoke free electrons and produce electrical power output under the action of a PN junction. Because the system does not involve any moving parts, its fabrication and assembly are relatively easy, and its operation is expected to be more reliable. At the same time, it possesses relatively high eciency of energy conversion [9]. As a result, it can be more commonly used in commercial electronics and microdevices, in which convenient and inexpensive production, reliable operation and low maintenance cost are the key factors of success. As one of the most important components of the micro TPV system, the microcombustor must be developed rst. The most challenging issue in microcombustor design is maintaining an optimal balance between sustaining combustion and maximizing heat output. According to the
photovoltaic array selective emitter inlet micro mixer flame tube combustor micro coolibg fins

Fig. 1. Basic design of micro TPV system.

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cube-square law, as the size of the combustor is reduced by a factor of 100, the surface and volume will decrease by 4 and 6 orders of magnitude, respectively, and thereby, the surface to volume ratio will increase by a factor of 100. So, sustaining combustion in a MEMS size combustor will be largely aected by the increased heat losses due to the high surface to volume ratio, which tends to suppress ignition and quench the reaction. On the other hand, the power output of a micro TPV system depends on the temperature and the size of surface. High surface to volume ratio is very favorable to the output of power density per unit volume. This is the most attractive feature of a micro TPV system. In order to test the feasibility of combustion in microdevices and determine the relevant factors aecting microcombustion, numerical and experimental work on a micro ame tube combustor was performed.

3. H2 /air combustion mechanism In microcombustor design, the choice of fuel plays a key role. Compared to a conventional combustor, a microcombustor is more highly constrained by inadequate residence time for complete combustion and high rates of heat transfer from the combustor. This fundamental time constraint can be quantied in terms of a homogeneous Damkohler number Dah , the ratio of gas residence time to the characteristic chemical reaction time [3]. To ensure complete combustion, Dah must be greater than unity. Dah with sresidence % sreaction % VP _ RT m fuel0 Afuel O2 eEa =RT0
a b

sresidence sreaction

2 3

In this work, hydrogen was chosen as the fuel because of its high heating value, fast diusion velocity and short reaction time [3]. Gas phase kinetics of hydrogen oxidation reactions has been widely studied, and the typical mechanism (shown in Table 1), consisting of 19 reversible reactions and nine species, is quoted in our study [10,11]. Five reactions in this mechanism involve third body collisions, and their reaction rates are expressed as: ri ki
ng Y j1

Cj ij

aij Cj

The other gas phase reactions are written as: ri ki

ng Y j1

Cj ij

W.M. Yang et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 44 (2003) 26252634 Table 1 Gas-phase reaction mechanism of hydrogen oxidation [10,11] Reactions O2 + H OH + O H2 + O OH + H H2 + OH H2 O+H OH + OH H2 O + O H2 + O2 OH + OH H + OH + M H2 O + Ma O2 + M O + O + M H2 + M H + H + Mb H + O2 + M HO2 + Mc H + O2 + O2 HO2 + O2 H + O2 + N2 HO2 + N2 HO2 + H H2 + O2 HO2 + H OH + OH HO2 + O OH + O2 HO2 + OH H2 O + O2 HO2 + HO2 H2 O2 + O2 H2 O2 + M OH + OH + M H2 O2 + H H2 + HO2 H2 O2 + OH H2 O + HO2 A 5.13E+16 1.18E+10 1.17E+09 6.00E+08 1.70E+13 7.50E+23 1.85E+11 2.23E+12 2.10E+18 6.70E+19 6.70E+19 2.50E+14 2.50E+13 4.80E+13 5.00E+13 2.00E+12 1.30E+17 1.60E+12 1.00E+13 b )0.816 1.00 1.30 1.30 0.00 )2.60 0.50 0.5 )1.00 )1.42 )1.42 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Ea (cal/mol) 16507.0 8842.7 3626.0 0.0 47780.0 0.0 95560.0 92600.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1900.0 700.0 1000.0 1000.0 0.0 45500.0 3800.0 1800.0

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Rate constants are given in the form of k AT b expEa =T . a Enhancement factors: H2 O 20.0. b Enhancement factors: H2 O 6.0, H 2.0, H2 3.0. c Enhancement factors: H2 O 21.0, H2 3.3, O2 0.0, N2 0.0.

aij is unity except as specied in Table 1. Given the rate constant data in Table 1, the species generation rate can be written as: _j w
Nr X k 1

mjk Rk

with Rk being expressed as: Rk rk f rkb 7

4. Experimental set-up To investigate the stability of the ame and validate the simulation results, at the same time, for simplicity of fabrication, three kinds of dierent stainless steel ame tube combustors (one is straight tube of 2.2 mm diameter, the other two are ame tubes with a sudden expansion step, having the diameter of 3 mm) were fabricated and tested. The construction and specications of the three ame tube combustors are given in Fig. 2. The mass ow rates of hydrogen and air were controlled accurately by two sets of electronic mass ow controllers, through which the H2 /air ratio can also be adjusted. The distributions of temperature, both on the exit plane and along the wall of the ame tube, were measured by 0.203 mm diameter type K thermocouple.

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Fig. 2. Conguration and specications of three combustors (unit: m 103 ). (a) Tube #1, (b) tube #2 and (c) tube #3.

5. Results and discussion According to the simulation results and experimental data of the three dierent ame tube combustors, when the ow speed at the inlet drops to 1.3 m/s, because of the great heat losses, the ame extinguishes after a short term combustion, which indicates that combustion cannot be sustained in such small ame tubes when the ow rate is too low. When the ow speed exceeds 8 m/s, combustion does not take place inside the straight tube under any conditions, but it may take place outside of the tube. Therefore, stable combustion can only be obtained in the straight tube with ow speeds at the inlet varying from 1.5 to 8 m/s, but the position of the ame core is dierent for each speed. Furthermore, with increasing ow rate, a higher H2 /air ratio is required to get stable combustion in the ame tube, or the ame will be blown out the exit [12]. At 2 m/s, the peak temperatures on the wall occur at about 5, 14 and 25 mm below the exit plane when the H2 /air ratios are 0.45, 0.5 and 0.55, respectively. This indicates that ignition occurs earlier, and increasing H2 /air ratios can increase the combustion rate. From the above study, we know that there are some disadvantages with the straight ame tube combustor: First, it is dicult to control the position of the ame, which keeps changing with the variation of working condition. Second, combustion cannot be sustained in a straight tube when the H2 /air ratio is not high enough, especially for high ow rates. So, we designed another kind of ame tube with a sudden expansion step, which is used to facilitate recirculation along the wall, thereby enhancing combustion completeness around the rim of the ow tube and ensuring stable combustion. Comparing to straight tube #1, tubes #2 and #3 with a sudden step can work steadily under a much wider ow rate and wider H2 /air ratio. Stable combustion has been obtained with ow speeds at the inlet varying from 1.5 to 20 m/s and H2 /air ratios varying from 0.451.0. At the same time, the sudden step is very useful in ensuring that the ame occurs in the tube downstream of the step. It should be mentioned that the tube downstream of the sudden step must be long enough so that the combustion is nished before owing out the exit. Fig. 3 shows the temperature distri-

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bution on the axial plane of tubes #2 and #3 when the velocity at the inlet is 8 m/s and the H2 /air ratio is 0.45. The temperature proles on the exit plane obtained by numerical simulation and experimental testing are given in Fig. 4. From Fig. 3(a), we can see clearly that part of the fuel has not been combusted before owing out the exit, and thus, the temperature in the centerline of the exit plane is very low (see Fig. 4(a)). In contrast, the result in Figs. 3(b) and 4(b) is much better. Furthermore, we can further improve the completeness of combustion by increasing the H2 /air ratio (see Fig. 5 [12]).

Fig. 3. Distribution of temperature on axial plane (velocity: 8 m/s, H2 /air ratio: 0.45). (a) Tube #2, (b) tube #3.
1600 1200 800 400 0 -0.001 0 radius R (m) Temperature T (K) 1600 1200 800 400 0 0 0.001 radius R (m) 0.002

-0.002

Temperature T (K)

0.001

0.002

-0.002 -0.001

(a)

(b)

Fig. 4. Temperature prole on exit plane. Simulation results (), tested results (D). (a) Tube #2, (b) tube #3.

Fig. 5. Distribution of temperature on axial plane (tube #3) (velocity: 8 m/s, H2 /air ratio: 0.75).

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Temperature T (K) 1300 1000 700 400 0 0.002 0.004 0.006 Distance from step L(m) Temperature T (K) 1300 1000 700 400 0 0.003 0.006 0.009 0.012 Distance from step L(m)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 6. Distribution of temperature along the wall (H2 /air ratio: 0.45; velocity at inlet: 8 m/s). Simulation results (), tested results (D). (a) Tube #2, (b) tube #3.

From Figs. 3 and 5, we also observe another interesting phenomenon. The combustion takes place near the wall rather than the centerline of the ame tube at the beginning. Thus, the fuel/air mixture around the centerline is heated and accelerated by the surrounding combustion products and ows quickly to near the end of ame tube and combusts there, which is favorable for maintaining a uniform temperature along the wall. The distributions of temperature on the wall of the ame tube are given in Fig. 6. Both the simulation and experimental results indicate that the maximum dierence of temperature along the wall is less than 5%. This feature of the micro ame tube combustor is very important to the design of micro TPV system. According to Figs. 4 and 6, we know that the temperature distribution prole obtained by numerical simulation is very similar to that obtained by experiment, and the dierences of temperature, both on the exit plane and along the wall, are less than 9%. The H2 /air ratio is one of the most important factors aecting microcombustion. It not only aects the combustion rate but also aects the temperature and its distribution. When the ow rate is constant, with increasing H2 /air ratio, both the temperatures on the exit plane and along the wall increase drastically, and the position of the peak temperature on the exit plane also moves towards the centerline. This can be seen in Fig. 7, which shows the test results when the velocity at the inlet is 5 m/s. Flow rate is another important factor aecting the temperatures, both on the exit plane and along the wall [12]. Fig. 8 shows the variation of mean wall temperature with velocity. With increasing velocity at the inlet, the total energy released by combustion increases, and thereby, the mean wall temperature increases. However, as the ow rate increases further, the eective residence time of the fuel decreases, worsening the completeness of combustion, lowering the eTemperature T (K) Temperature T (K) 0 0.50 0.001 R (m) 0.60 0.002 1400 1200 1000 800 600 -0.001 Radius 0.45 1050 1000 950 900 850 800 0 0.005 Distance from step L(m) 0.45 0.50 0.60 0.01

-0.002

(a)

(b)

Fig. 7. Distribution of temperature (velocity at inlet: 5 m/s) (a) on exit plane and (b) along the wall.

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Temperature T (K) 1300 1100 900 700 500 0 5 0.45 0.60 10 0.50 0.70 15

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Velocity at inlet (m/s)

Fig. 8. Variation of mean wall temperature with velocity.

Fig. 9. The picture of microcombustion.

ciency and the temperature on the wall, even quenching the ame. This situation should be avoided. Optimization yields an average temperature of about 1300 K along the wall, which has been achieved for tube #3 when the ow rate at the inlet is 12 m/s and the H2 /air ratio is 0.95, which is appropriate as the heat source of the micro TPV system. The photo of microcombustion by digital camera under these conditions is shown in Fig. 9.

6. Conclusions High surface to volume ratio is very favorable to the output of power density per unit volume, though it tends to suppress ignition and quench the reaction in microdevices. The above studies indicate that stable combustion can be achieved in a small tube under a sudden step with a wider ow rate and wider hydrogen/air ratio than in a straight tube. Furthermore, the sudden step is very useful in controlling the position of the ame. Combustion takes place near the wall rather than the centerline of the ame tube at the beginning. Thus, the part of the fuel/air mixture around the centerline is heated and accelerated by the surrounding combustion products and ows quickly to near the end of ame tube and combusts there, which is favorable to keep the

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uniform temperature along the wall. The H2 /air ratio not only aects the temperatures, both on the exit plane and along the wall, but also aects the position of the ame core. Flow rate is another important factor aecting microcombustion in a ame tube. An average temperature of about 1300 K along the wall has been obtained with a ow speed of 12 m/s at the inlet and the H2 /air ratio of 0.95, which is appropriate as the heat source of the micro TPV system.

Acknowledgement This work is supported by NUS grant number R-265-000-066-112. References

[1] Epstein AH, Senturia SD, et al., Micro-heat engines, gas turbines, and rocket enginesthe MIT Microengine project. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, AIAA 97-1773, 1997. p. 112. [2] Epstein AH, Senturia SD, et al., Power MEMS and Microengines. In: IEEE Transducers 97 Conference, Chicago, IL, 1997. p. 7536. [3] Waitz IA, Gauba G, et al. Combustors for micro-gas turbine engines. ASME J Fluids Eng 1998;120:10917. [4] Kelvin Fu, Knobloch AJ, et al. Microscale combustion research for applications to MEMS Rotary IC Engine. In: Proceedings of NHTC, 2001 National Heat Transfer Conference, Anaheim, CA, 1012 June 2001. p. 16. [5] Sitzki L, Borer K, et al. Combustion in microscale heat-recirculating burners. In: The Third Asia-Pacic Conference on Combustion, Seoul, Korea, 2427 June 2001. p. 14. [6] White DC, Wedlock BD, Blair J. Recent advance in thermal energy conversion. In: 15th Annual Power Sources Conference, Atlantic City, NJ, 1961. p. 12532. [7] Guazzoni G, Kittl E, Shapiro S. Rare earth radiators for thermophotovoltaic energy conversion. In: International Electron Devices Meeting. Washington, DC, 1968. p. 1302. [8] Ferguson LG, Fraas LM. Theroretical study of GaSb PV cell eciency as a function of temperature. Solar Energy Mater Solar Cells 1995;39:118. [9] White DC, Hottel HC. Important factors in determining the eciency of TPV systems. In: First NREL Conf Thermophotovoltaic Generation of Electricity, Copper Mountain, CO, 1995. p. 42556. [10] Markatou P, Pfeerle LD, Smooke MD. The inuence of surface chemistry on the development of minor species proles in the premixed boundary layer combustion of H2 /air mixture. Combust Sci Tech 1991;79:23768. [11] Warnatz J, Allendorf MD, et al. A model of elementary chemistry and uid mechanics in the combustion of hydrogen on platinum surfaces. Combust Flame 1994;96:393406. [12] Wenming Y. Simulation of micro-combustion in micro-combustor and relevant experiments, Annual report, National University of Singapore, 2001. p. 118.