Thermal electric technology

Mills, D. 2004. Advances in solar thermal electricity technology. Solar Energy 76 19-31. 

Thermal Electric Technology for Portable (and Other) Applications... 

The first solar-electric technology to arouse industry interest was solar-thermal energy (1,3,5,6,8). Under favorable circumstances, it can be cost-effective, as evidenced by the fact that solar-thermal gas-hybrid plants produce over 350 MW of commercial power in southern California. This power is used during peak demand to supplement that available from conventional generation. 

The first experiments with the thermal electric engine were conducted in Russia in 1929 by its inventor, Valentin P. Glushko, who later became a world-famous authority in rocket propulsion. For more than forty years, the United States and Russia have devoted many resources to research and development of various kinds of EREs. First tested in space by the Russians in 1964, these engines have found some limited applications in modern space technology. For more than two decades Russian weather and communication satellites have regularly used electric rocket engines for orbital stabilization. The first spacecraft to employ ERE for main propulsion was the American asteroid exploration probe Deep Space 1, launched in 1998. The performance of... 

Infrared thermal destruction technology is a thermal processing system that uses electrically powered silicon carbide rods to heat organic wastes to combustible temperatures. Any remaining combustibles are incinerated in an afterburner. One configuration made by ECOVA Corporation consists of four components65 ... 

Composite technology in general sets out to combine materials in such a way that the properties of the composite are the optimum for a particular application. The property, whether mechanical, thermal, electrical etc., is determined by the choice of component and their relative amounts and, most importantly, the connectivity , that is the manner in which the components are interconnected. 

Grassi, G. and Bridgwater, A. V., The opportunities for electricity production from biomass by advanced thermal-conversion technologies. Biomass Bioenergy 1993, 4 (5), 339-345. 

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