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Diamond dust brings solar power down to Earth

Dr Neil Fox (centre) receiving his award at E.ON’s headquarters in Düsseldorf.

Dr Neil Fox (centre) receiving his award at E.ON’s headquarters in Düsseldorf.

Press release issued: 13 May 2009

Dr Neil Fox from the University’s School of Chemistry and the Department of Physics has been awarded EUR980,000 by the energy company E.ON for a project that plans to exploit solar heat to produce electricity. It will do so using devices called thermionic energy converters (TECs). Dr Fox is developing special electrodes for these converters using nanoparticles of industrial diamond powder, which is low-cost and readily available.

Dr Neil Fox from the University’s School of Chemistry and the Department of Physics has been awarded EUR980,000 by the energy company E.ON for a project that plans to exploit solar heat to produce electricity. It will do so using devices called thermionic energy converters (TECs). Dr Fox is developing special electrodes for these converters using nanoparticles of industrial diamond powder, which is low-cost and readily available.

TEC principles are common in space vehicles but these new electrodes are designed to lower operating temperatures substantially while maintaining a potential energy-conversion efficiency of more than 40 per cent.

The project, known as the Lithiated Nanoparticle Diamond Energy Converter project, should enable a TEC to operate satisfactorily on solar power, leading to a renewable-powered generation device that has no moving parts or fluids, is free of maintenance and is able to deliver reliable electricity production over a long period.

It aims to achieve operation below ‘red heat’ level, possibly as low as 320˚ Celsius. Conventional TECs with metal electrodes require temperatures well above 1,500˚ Celsius to produce sufficient electrical current. The trials, some of which will take place in the South West, will use parabolic dishes to concentrate the sun’s rays. If successful the project will produce a solar-based technology that could provide an alternative to photovoltaics.

Speaking about the project, Dr Fox said: “It is a very ambitious project but thanks to E.ON we now have the people and equipment in Bristol to make advances that will help realise a solar thermal technology that can work outside the sun belt regions of the world.”

Dr Fox received his award at a ceremony at E.ON’s headquarters in Düsseldorf.  Awards went to a total of 11 universities and institutes from Australia, Germany, Greece, Sweden, the UK and the USA. The other winning projects include concepts that will make solar cells more efficient and cheaper to produce, technologies that generate power from ambient heat, methods for the sustainable generation of hydrogen from local biomass, as well as systems designed to increase the energy efficiency of buildings.

Speaking at the award ceremony in Düsseldorf, German Innovation Minister Andreas Pinkwart said: “The awards fit in perfectly with our times: it commends people shaping the future. Energy research and nanotechnology have enormous scientific and economic potential.”

 

Further information

Please contact Dr Neil Fox for further information.
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