thermoelectric devices Archives – The Green Optimistic

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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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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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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