Design and testing of a heat pipe cooled thermionic energy converter

Research on thermionic conversion (TEC) at the Eindhoven University of Technology is described. The initial fundamental research on emitter materials has been followed by the design, construction and testing of a flame-heated, air-cooled TEC. Air cooling of the collector with a sodium heat pipe has been preferred as it improves the thermodynamical behavior of the TEC in its prime application area, the electrical generator of a total energy module (TOTEM). Some results of the characterization of the materials used in the convertor, some design considerations for the air-cooled test TEC constructed recently, and test results for a sodium heat pipe collector are discussed