Thermoelectric Archives – The Green Optimistic

Innovative Device Harnesses Heat at Night

Mila Luleva — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 10:48:47 +0000

New device generates electricity from darkness. Winter is fast approaching, days are getting shorter, nights are getting colder. It is inevitable that even the most eco-conscious among us start thinking a bit more about staying warm and cosy. A team of scientists from Stanford University, took on a quest to explore unconventional ways to generate […]

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Energy Dept: Geothermal Power Has “Enormous Untapped Potential”

Matias Prieto — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 19:19:15 +0000

A new report by the U.S. Department of Energy identifies geothermal energy — in which heat from beneath the Earth’s surface is used to generate electricity — as an underdeveloped source of power. The report, titled GeoVision, found that there’s “enormous untapped potential for geothermal” electricity. It outlines how America’s geothermal energy production could increase 26 […]

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Japanese Thermoelectric Generator Yields Record Efficiency

Arsenij Percov — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 19:33:37 +0000

Nowadays we can notice that a lot of devices and objects we use daily are becoming smarter every day. We can see this trend with speakers, refrigerators, watches, bulbs, and even cars. They connect to the internet and share data with other items, creating the network called the Internet of Things (IoT). Therefore, the idea […]

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MIT’s New Invention Harvests Energy from Changes in Ambient Temperature

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 19:49:11 +0000

When two different materials have different temperatures, the temperature gradient causes the charge carriers to move from the hotter material to the cooler material. This conversion of temperature gradient into electricity and vice versa is called thermoelectric effect. In this era of renewable energy sources, researchers have been developing thermoelectric devices which tap energy from […]

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Thermophotovoltaic Solar Cells Produce Electricity in the Dark

Mila Luleva — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 17:33:05 +0000

Scientists developed a new nanomaterial that can make solar cells generate electricity in the dark. “Solar power generation in the dark? How is this possible?” If these were the questions that popped up in your mind when you read the title, I would say, you have every right to ask. This is especially the case […]

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Fire-Powered Wifi Router in a Stone Aims to Take You Online in the Wild

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 18:48:07 +0000

A Wi-Fi router embedded in a 1.5-ton rock and powered by fire could keep you connected even in the deepest of forests. Wireless networks are everywhere around us. At any given time, our smartphones are able to detect numerous wi-fi connections transmitted from all sorts of different devices. Of course this general statement is easily made […]

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How to Use an Exhaust Heat Recovery System to Charge up your Phone

Michael Rush — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 11:27:34 +0000

Although the world is constantly moving towards cleaner and greener means of transportation, a complete transition to these kinds of transport is still years away. So in the meantime, here’s one small technological device that improves the efficiency of conventional engines everywhere. Modern versions of the internal combustion engine found in a typical motor vehicle […]

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Body Heat Harvesting Wearable Patch Better than Batteries

Guest Contributor — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 08:09:34 +0000

There is a new hope for keeping wearable gadgets hooked as long as you like, without even minding of charging them. An NSF sponsored nanoengineering research center, ASSIST or Advanced Self Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors of North Carolina State University, have been developing sensors that use body heat to power up wearable gadgets. The […]

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Thermoelectric Table from Ikea Turns Heat Into Electricity

Samantha Joe — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 20:11:55 +0000

You may not realize how much heat everyday objects give off. Your computer, television, or even your cup of tea – all of these radiate heat, but it’s wasted. For years, being able to turn this heat into electricity was a dream. Now, with thermoelectric technology, it may be possible. New concepts, like generators built […]

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Hybrid System Turns Waste Heat From Solar Panels to Warm Water

Mila Luleva — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 18:17:45 +0000

A new type of hybrid system combines solar panels with solar water heaters to optimize energy production and make the most of every sun ray that comes its way. Sunshine is great for solar panels efficiency, but too much sunshine causes the panels to heat up, and this is actually not so good- in fact […]

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New Formula Speeds Up Development of Thermoelectric Materials

Mila Luleva — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 19:39:43 +0000

Identifying materials that have high potential for converting heat to electricity have just become much easier, as researchers from Houston University released a new formula. It would be a dream-come-true if the material with incredible thermoelectric properties is discovered. After all, using the heat from the surroundings and turning it into electricity would be ideal, […]

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Move Over Noisy Compressors, Phononic’s Thermoelectric Heat Pump is Here

Mila Luleva — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 12:43:07 +0000

A quiet energy efficient fridge, coffee table that can chill drinks, radiant on-demand temperature control for rooms. All this could become reality with large scale semiconductor cooling, and a US-based start-up might just have what it takes to make it happen. Semiconductor cooling is not a new thing. We all have heard about little devices […]

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Cheap and Efficient Thermoelectric Material Turns Waste Heat Into Eectricity

Mila Luleva — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:39:08 +0000

New thermoelectric material, tetrahedrite, a naturally occurring mineral, non-toxic and super efficient conductor that turns waste heat into power, goes on sale by Alphabet Energy. Converting heat into electricity has not gained much popularity, mainly because scientists have failed to find the right material that can conduct electricity without conducting heat. The few attempts that […]

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Super Cool Outdoor Stove Powers Electronics While Cooking Your Dinner

Mila Luleva — Mon, 26 May 2014 09:29:20 +0000

Summer is coming! At least for us in the Northern hemisphere, anyway. Days are longer, the sun is stronger, people are happier, and all these together can mean only one thing- barbeque time! But as we all sit and chat around the little smoking stove, the darkness of the night often surprises us before the […]

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Thermoelectric Generator Harvests Renewable Energy, Yours

Benji Jerew — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 15:31:00 +0000

As pointed out in a famous movie, human beings generate a lot of extra heat. This renewable energy source could be harvested, hopefully not to power some robot-horde, but perhaps some of tomorrow’s wearable devices. Take, for example, the smartwatch, a wireless extension of the smartphone, which not only tells time and date, but can […]

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After Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Japan Moves toward Coal and Gas Power

Leigh Hutchens — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 01:16:43 +0000

In wake of Tokyo’s struggles with moving away from costly oil, Japan is planning to build 14 new gas and coal-fired power plants by the end of 2014. Two of the planned coal power plants will be finished by December, and the other 12 gas-fired plants will be completed during 2014. They will use liquefied […]

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Motorcycle Uses Hydrogen Fuel Cell to Recover Lost Energy

Benji Jerew — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 18:54:35 +0000

I’ve seen hydrogen fuel cells being tested as range-extenders and as full-blown propulsion systems, but I kind of like this setup, as an energy recovery device, improving the fuel economy of a motorcycle. Granted, motorcycles are already some of the best vehicles, only two-wheels granted, but they still suffer from the exact same inefficiencies that […]

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Waste Heat May Boost Power Plant Performance by 10%

Leigh Hutchens — Sat, 07 Sep 2013 05:29:04 +0000

Vehicle mileage might be increased by 5% and power plant industrial process performance may be increased by up to 10%, thanks to physicists at the University of Houston’s physics department and the Texas Center for Superconductivity. The physicists studied non-toxic materials, including tin telluride that had iridium added to it for waste heat recovery. Earlier […]

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Pierre Poudeu’s Thermoelectric Alloy Converts Heat 200% Better

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 31 May 2013 13:06:45 +0000

A new thermoelectric material has emerged from a University of Michigan lab. Pierre Ferdinand P. Poudeu, assistant professor of material science and engineering, has developed a material whose ability to convert heat into power is 200 percent higher. Poudeu engineered an alloy of titanium zirconium, nickel and tin which, he says, is not very good in thermoelectric […]

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Osmoblue Thermoelectric Device Works at Lower Temperatures

Benji Jerew — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:14:43 +0000

Aside from energy efficiency, energy recovery could be the next best way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Thermoelectric devices use waste heat to generate electricity. Depending on whether you are looking at an internal combustion engine or a manufacturing plant, up to 60% of the energy that goes into these, whether chemical or electrical, is […]

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3D Printable Thin Film Thermoelectric Generator is Flexible Enough to Install Anywhere

Benji Jerew — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 07:28:51 +0000

Most energy systems are extremely inefficient, but flexible thermoelectric generators could recover some of that lost energy and put it back into the system. If we’ve ever seen steam billowing from a cooling tower or felt the hot exhaust coming from an automobile, what we’ve really been seeing is lost energy. According to the US […]

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New Thermoelectric Tube by Panasonic Recovers Lost Heat Energy

Mila Luleva — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:27:03 +0000

The latest technology by the giant Panasonic, a “thermoelectric tube,” is being tested at their Northeastern Clean Center in Kyoto City for its power generating capabilities. The tube can produce electricity from hot water by creating temperature differences between the different thermoelectric materials with low and high thermal conductivity. The company claims that a termoelectric […]

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How to Build an Electricity-Producing Peltier Gasifier

Mila Luleva — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:11:26 +0000

A gasifier works by decomposing organic matter in an oxygen-free environment at high temperatures and then burning the hydrogen that results from that decomposition. It is a smokeless, much cleaner way of providing electricity and/or heat without particle emissions and soot. The so-called “Fusion Jr.” Home Energy Reactor has an amazing potential to generate energy […]

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Organic Thermoelectric Conversion Material to Be Used in Human Health Monitoring Devices

Leigh Hutchens — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:50:37 +0000

Using an organic polymer, Fujifilm Corp developed an organic thermoelectric conversion material and claims the material demonstrates the highest thermoelectric conversion efficiency in the world. Fujifilm demonstrated its new device at Nanotech 2013 in Tokyo on February 1. Rumor has it the material was developed in cooperation with Japan’s Association for Iron and Steel Technology […]

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Atomic Layer Deposition Improves Thermoelectric Materials

Mila Luleva — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:37:15 +0000

Researchers at Aalto University School of Chemical Technology developed a new cost-effective method to convert waste energy into electricity without carbon dioxide emissions. The team defined the synthesis method as extremely suitable for growing films made of thermoelectric zinc oxide material. To improve the thermoelectric properties of the material, the team added small amounts of either aluminium or […]

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Treating Heat Just Like Light Yields New Thermoelectric Applications

Mila Luleva — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 19:15:25 +0000

New research coming from MIT’s Department of Materials science and engineering, reveals a technique that allows manipulation of heat so that it can be controlled as light waves. The author, Martin Maldovan, a researcher at the institute, engineered materials that consist of nanostructured semiconductor alloy crystals. Considering that heat is basically a vibration of matter, […]

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Energy-Saving Thermoelectric Material Made From Dirt

Leigh Hutchens — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 08:07:30 +0000

A team of researchers at Michigan State University have developed a new type of thermoelectric material by using common materials found in dirt. The researchers developed this material using what they know about tetrahedrites, one of the most abundant minerals on Earth. MSU Professor of Chemical Engineering, Donald Morelli, and his team figured out how […]

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Fraunhofer Team Invents Printed Thermoelectric Device

Mila Luleva — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:06:42 +0000

At the Electronica trade fair in Munich (13 – 16 November), researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Bremen is presenting a striking innovation. A printed thermogenerator, manufactured by the team, which deposits functional structures containing ink or paste base, and has electrical circuit boards and sensors that can […]

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New Hybrid Thermoelectric-Photovoltaic Device Demonstrated at UTA

Benji Jerew — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:56:41 +0000

For decades, photovoltaic devices have generated electricity directly from sunlight. Thermoelectric devices generate electricity from heat energy. Both devices have found their way into various applications, from photovoltaic roof panels to thermoelectric energy recovery in vehicles. Both methods of electrical generation are fairly inefficient, but now, by combining these two properties, researchers at University of […]

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Practical Thermoelectric Power Possible with Newly Invented Material

Benji Jerew — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 21:57:06 +0000

Energy efficiency, that is, the amount of usable energy in a given fuel, is based off a number of factors. Hydrocarbon fuels, for example, have a given amount of chemical energy, that, when ignited, can be used to generate electricity, or propel locomotives and passenger vehicles. Even in the most efficient motor vehicle, more than […]

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Thermoelectric Generator: How to Build One

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:10:54 +0000

A thermoelectric generator is a semiconductor device that transforms the heat difference between its two layers into electricity. It belongs to a class of materials called “thermoelectrics” and are one of auto industry’s greatest hopes in what regards the savings obtained from an internal combustion engine, and is also called “Peltier generator.” With a Peltier generator, […]

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New Carbon Nanotube-Based Thermoelectric Material Could Be a Game Changer

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:29:43 +0000

A new thermoelectric material has been invented at the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at wake Forest University. It’s been called Power Felt, and its creators hope that one day it will revolutionize the way we power small appliances and devices like cell phones by using temperature differences. Power Felt is made from carbon nanotubes […]

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MIT Researchers Invent Solar Cells That Transform Heat Into Electricity

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:35:58 +0000

If you thought photovoltaics can only get energy from the Sun, then you were wrong. An MIT team of researchers have invented a device that produces electricity from heat. The process uses the photovoltaic effect as the middleman and is three times more efficient than the most efficient lithium ion batteries on market today.

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New Multiferroic Alloy Magnetizes When Heated, Transforms Waste Heat Into Electricity

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:25:30 +0000

A team of researchers at the University of Minnesota has discovered a new alloy that can transform heat into electricity. The approach is new and uses a coil to transform the magnetic field generated by the alloy.

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Thermoelectric Phone Charger Provides Electricity From Camp Fire

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:33:56 +0000

Hatsuden-Nabe is the name of a device that can charge up your cellphone by using wasted heat. It's available in Japan since yesterday and it surely attracts a lot of hikers and adventurers, who think this could save their lonesome journeys.

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BMW, Ford, GM to Test Thermoelectric Devices on Real Cars This Summer

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 25 May 2011 16:26:52 +0000

Thermoelectric materials are used to convert heat into electricity. These devices have applicability in all kinds of industries and machinery, ranging from cars to coal-fired power plants. The world's greatest automobile manufacturers, BMW, Ford and GM have committed themselves to equip test cars with prototype thermoelectric devices by the end of this summer and see how they'll behave.

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New Pyroelectric Device Transforms Heat into Electricity With 30% Efficiency

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:19:05 +0000

Thermoelectric devices transform waste heat into electricity and can one day provide increased efficiency for everything from small gadgets to power plants. Scott Hunter, working at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) hopes his new heat-recovering invention will scavenge lost heat with an efficiency of up to 30 percent.

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Solar Thermoelectric Device Harnesses Sun's Heat, Transforms Directly Into Electricity

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 03 May 2011 17:25:13 +0000

A new material that could one day change the efficiency of thermal solar panels has been invented by MIT and Boston College researchers, with collaborators from GMZ Energy. The thermoelectric device is at least eight times more efficient than what's currently available in labs.

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Ultrasound Technology Used to Fabricate Future's Best Thermoelectric Materials

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:54:22 +0000

By using a technology that is normally suited to cleaning jewelery, with common solvents, ultrasounds, and 1 milligram of layered material (such as graphite), Dr. Valeria Nicolosi, the collaborator from the University of Oxford says they can make "billions and billions of one-atom-thick nanosheets can be made at the same time from a wide variety of exotic layered materials."

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Lead Telluride-Based Thermoelectric Device Breaks Efficiency Record Barrier

Ovidiu Sandru — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 13:54:24 +0000

Just like a savior knight, energy recovery comes to help the industries that pollute most and that waste large quantities of heat. A 14% efficiency has been reported for a newly-invented thermoelectric nanomaterial by the researchers of Northwestern University in Illinois. So far, efficiency values in this field didn't exceed 10%.

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Newly Discovered Nanoscale Structural Displacements Lead the Way to More Efficient Thermoelectrics

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:59:00 +0000

A team of scientists from important US research institutes such as the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Columbia University, Argonne National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Northwestern University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, while studying lead chalcogenides (lead paired with tellurium, selenium or sulfur), have discovered how these behave at an atomic scale and how they could offer great thermoelectric properties.

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Both Light And Heat Harvested by New Device from Fujitsu

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 15:37:27 +0000

Solar panels harvest light and thermoelectric devices harvest the heat - but recently, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd have developed a blend of both: a power-generating device that can convert both light and temperature difference into an electric current.

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Louisiana Professor Uses Piezoelectric Material and Carbon Nanotubes to Recover Lost Heat

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:53:49 +0000

A Louisiana Tech University professor, dr. Long Que, has designed and prototyped a composite material that converts heat into electricity by using simple physical mechanisms found in piezoelectric materials and carbon nanotubes.

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Spin-Seebeck Effect Causing New Magnetic Semiconductor To Become Energy Harvester

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 09:20:11 +0000

A gallium manganese arsenide semiconductor may be the material to revolutionize how electronic circuits power and recycle their waste heat, through a research of Ohio State University scientists, led by Joseph Heremans and Roberto Myers, both from OSU.

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Ukrainian & American Team Makes Ferroelectric Nanowires Harvest Heat Differences

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 07:02:56 +0000

A team of Ukranian and American scientists have discovered that by using structures called ferroelectric nanowires, they can generate electricity from a temperature difference. This concept is now new, but rather uses different approaches and materials. It can harvest energy by using the temperature difference between materials and/or ambients.

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Silicon Nanomesh Designed by Caltech Serves As Almost-Perfect Heat Insulator

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 08:40:52 +0000

All of the electronics devices you use, all the wires, the cars, basically anything using energy heats up and loses part of its useful energy as heat - wasted heat, through well-cooled radiators. Thermoelectric devices have recently suffered technological advances and are now more able to harness the lost heat energy and transform it into electricity. A new material made out of silicon can serve as the ultimate heat insulator and still conduct electricity.

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Thermopower Waves: MIT's Invention That Could Change Batteries and Devices Forever

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:10:02 +0000

Thermopower waves are a phenomenon that happens when powerful waves of energy shoot through carbon nanotube wires, creating electricity. The researchers from MIT are responsible for this discovery, thus opening a new area of rare energy research.

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Japanese Thermoelectric Modules Aim Reaching Record of 11% Efficiency

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:17:52 +0000

A new test will be performed by Showa Denko on Feb. 15, 2010. The thermoelectric device is designed to be attached to the exhaust pipe of a car and supply electricity to the car's air conditioner, thus improving the fuel mileage.

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Highly Mismatched Alloys – Solution for Really Efficient Thermoelectrics

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:24:04 +0000

Thermoelectric devices convert heat into electricity, and are of great use in recovering wasted heat from thermal engines and transforming it into electricity, thus increasing the engine's overall efficiency, mostly when used in hybrid cars, who have high capacity onboard batteries.

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New MIT Thermoelectric Device Pushes Efficiency to Its Theoretical Limit

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:45:05 +0000

The Carnot Limit, calculated in the 19th century, demonstrates and sets the maximum efficiency that any device can achieve in converting heat into work. Theoretically and practically, you can't go over that limit. So, the devices constructed up to now only get a tenth of Carnot's limit.

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GM to Research Shape Memory Alloy for Heat Recovery Systems

Cristi — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:19:54 +0000

GM's R&D has to build a prototype of a thermo-mechanical waste heat recovery system using a Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) heat engine to generate electricity from the heat in exhaust. Noticeable is the fact that GM was between the 37 other candidates that received the ARPA-E award.

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Novotech's System Generates Renewable Energy from Asphalt

Mike Sandru — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:55:06 +0000

Scientists at Novotech and two Massachusetts universities are working to create a new system that could channel heat from asphalt and other paving materials into clean and usable energy.

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BMW Saves Fuel With Pipe-Mounted Radioactive Device

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 06:02:49 +0000

In a world that tries to save more and more of its resources, BMW wants to make use of the car's heat to recover some of the energy lost by thermal means. It's just that they understood this time by being green means putting a radioactive thermoelectric generator in the car's tailpipe.

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VW Equipping Future Cars With Heat Recovery Systems

Ovidiu Sandru — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 20:09:32 +0000

The International Thermoelectric Society website reported that Volkswagen showed a prototype vehicle equipped with a thermoelectric generator, recovering the dissipated heat energy and converting it into electricity. The prototype has been shown at the "Thermoelektrik - Eine Chance FÃƒÆ’¼r Die Atomobillindustrie?" meeting held in Berlin in October 2008.

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New Thermoelectric Device Produces 5W/cm², Could Save Laptop Batteries

Ovidiu Sandru — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:18:26 +0000

Netxtreme, a company providing thermal solutions, has come up with a thermoelectric evaluation kit, called eTEG UPF40 (embedded ThermoElectric Generator). It's an interesting concept, because of its efficiency (greater than that of standard thermoelectric materials) at converting heat into electricity.

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The Spin Seebeck Effect to Offer Low-Loss Thermoelectric Effect

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:19:18 +0000

Eiji Saitoh experimented with a heated magnetized metal (nickel-iron), and found out that the electrons with up spins (aligned with the rod's magnetic field) created an agglomeration on the hot side, while the ones with down spins (unaligned to the rod's magnetic field), created an agglomeration on the cooler side.

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Discovery: Clathrates Thermoelectric Materials Offer Better Efficiency

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:39:18 +0000

Some researchers from the University of ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Â¦rhus, Denmark, have studied promising thermoelectric materials from the group or clathrates, which create crystals full of 'nano-cages'.

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Body Heat to Electricity: German Scientists Working on Viable Design

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:41:32 +0000

German scientists have found a way of transforming body heat into electricity using thermoelectric devices. The discovery means that we may be able to operate our mobile phones using nothing but the warmth of our hands in the future. New circuits make it possible to harness body heat for generating electricity, scientists at the Fraunhofer […]

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