Posted on 03/21/2008 5:08:59 AM PDT by saganite
Does this mean better Peltier devices?
I don’t know. It looks like it will have an application in utilizing any industrial waste heat to generate electricity though. There’s no discussion of the efficiency of the process but I’m guessing anything that produces waste heat will see some benefit.
Interesting.
Also check out ENECO and Power Chips PLC.
Ping!.....
It did not do so when similar work was done in 1990-1994 under NASA JPL funding for the SP-100 program.
Do a quick search in the MRS and NASA databases as well as a simple Google search and see all the patents and publications in this area.
If someone is at MIT they can get away with this kind of thing.
I am surprised Earth First isn’t bombing the facility. This new technology will encourage the enslavement of Mother Earth because cheap power will expand consuption! Woe is us!
Only if the value of the generated electricity exceeds the cost of the equipment. I would think that if they had seen good cost efficiency, they would have put some numbers into the press release
We didn’t even get in the NIT. sigh
This is just an improvement on old tech so I expect it will see lots of new uses since it’s already in use. As for the article not saying much, that’s pretty typical of the stories on ScienceDaily. They just present a brief synopsis of new tech and science with a note at the end saying when the paper will be published and in what publication. This paper should already be published since it says 20 March is the pub date.
“This research will be published online in Science Express on March 20, 2008. The research was supported by the Department of Energy and by the National Science Foundation”
Great news! I wonder what the conversion efficiency is though and how much power can be generated per degree/m2 or cm3?
This has staggering applications - rooftops and building faces, roads, cars - anything with thermal imbalances can be made to generate power. The same car sitting under the hot sun can be made to generate power to cool down its interior without depleting its battery or fuel. In short, a solid-state and much simpler thermal-electric system than geothermal or any other conventional electricity generator.
Nice!
If the figure of merit is only increased by 40%, the efficiency will still be rather dismal. The figure of merit needs to be increased by at least an order of magnitude to see reasonable increases in efficiency.
This should improve the efficiency of thermoelectric nuclear power supplies for space missions also. One of the major drawbacks for exploration right now is the lack of electricity, especially during deep space missions, to power larger and more capable instruments. Since putting an actual nuclear power plant on board spacecraft has been nixed the next best method is putting nuclear material on board and using the heat from nuclear decay to power instruments. This should make that process more efficient.
So...an engine that puts out an enormous amount of heat, say during propulsion of a car, can be cooled and provide its own electricity by this new technology?
Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off
Here’s a little more info that might help answer your question from another article.
Cooler cars
One promising application for the improved material is transforming waste heat from car engines into electricity to help power the vehicles. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has set a goal of demonstrating a 10% increase in vehicle fuel economy through waste heat capture by 2014, according to John Fairbanks of the DOE.
No commercially available vehicle uses the technology today, but tests by car manufacturers including BMW suggest a 6-8% fuel efficiency increase is possible, Fairbanks says.
“Adding a 40% efficiency increase in thermoelectrics to that might meet that target,” Jeff Snyder, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, US, says.
The same approach could harvest human body heat to power medical implants although designing less power hungry devices is important too, Snyder notes.
Alternatively the improved alloy could be used in reverse for solid state cooling, without bulky pipes of gas or liquid coolant, in new areas. “We’re not yet at the point where we will see air conditioning systems or large refrigerators with solid state cooling, but it’s a significant advance,” says Snyder.
I design Thermoelectric refrigerators .... I’d love a 40% improvement!
MIT ‘67
Yeah, it would be good for you but I’m wanting a thermoelectric car and or backup generator for my house.
40% doesn’t get me there.
If this is your field, what do you think of ENECO? It seems to be a rather straight forward improvement in technology but I have heard nothing about product out the door.
Let me clarify.
A 40% improvement in figure of merit would not significantly improve the effiency of a thermo electric refrigerator, or thermo electric car.
Yes a 40% improvement in effiency would be great for you but I don’t think that is what they are talking about.
I haven’t done the calculations in a couple of decades but if memory serves the figure of merit affects the carnot effiency in a rather minimal way.
A 40% improvement of a low efficiency is still low. The Carnot efficiency is the maximum possible efficiency and is dependent on the temperatures of the heat source and sink.
In low grade heat applications, which these mostly are, the Carnot (theoretical) maximum efficiency is still very low. Not good enough to build an economy on, but it is a good way to obtain useful energy when there is no other way.
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