Power supply technology, selecting

The selected technology for on-board electric power on mid-length space vehicle missions (several days to a year), including the important man-moon mission, was the fuel cell. This is because the use of batteries for more than a couple of days proved too heavy, combustion engines and gas turbines required too heavy a fuel supply because of relatively low efficiency, and the use of a nuclear reactor was only suitable for missions of a year or more. There was a... 

The selection of a particular external reformer for a SOFC system is very much dependent on system size and design and other considerations/constraints. In general, SRs are used for large power systems the capital cost of SRs is prohibitive for small and medium-sized appHcations because this technology does not scale down well. POXs have several advantages over SRs, notably their exothermicity and functionality without water. The main difference between SRs and ATRs is that SRs do not require oxygen. The main advantage of ATRs, in contrast to SRs and POXs, is that there is no need, in principle, to supply or dissipate heat to or from the reformer. 

At the same time, important issues, such as selection of transportation options and supply chain power structure have attained limited exposure in current literature. Additionally, models tend to address only the general or specific problems. For instance, coordination and integration are usually investigated in relation to the information technology problem, while they are investigated together with inventory management to a limited extent. 

To analyze the reactor characteristics in both cases requires selection of an operational pattern and connections of all structural elements of the nuclear power system. In this case, the technologies of fuel recycling with superficial purification of fission products can be used. Nuclide flows supplied to the reactor depend on the amount, purpose and characteristics of all structural elements. Analyses show that the effectiveness of fuel utilization depends on the organization of nuclide flows in the nuclear power system to a greater extent than on the breeding ratio level of a fast reactor. 

There have been several OCM studies utihzing SOFC reactors " and a recent review. In many of these studies electrical power was supplied to the cell to increase cell crrrrent. This, however, tends in general to decrease the selectivity and yield of Cj hydrocarborts. Very recently it was foimd that it is possible to obtain C2 yields up to 88% by meaus of a novel gas-recycle SOFC reactor-separator. The C2H4 yield is up to 85%. These systems are of cortsiderable technological interest. 

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