Thermoelectric Archives – The Green Optimistic

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Discovery: New Material Turns Engine Wasted Heat to Electricity

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:25:59 +0000

Researchers from the Ohio State University invented a material that could be used in the automobile industry to recover the heat lost through the cars' exhaust systems. The same technology could work in power generators and heat pumps, said project leader Joseph Heremans, Eminent Scholar in Nanotechnology at OSU.

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