The University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has created a new flexible thermoelectric generator that can wrap around pipes and other hot surfaces and turn waste heat into electricity.
The researchers have long been working on improving the characteristics of thermoelectric generators that convert temperature differences into electricity, but so far this process has not been sufficiently effective.
Placing such devices near a heat source causes electrons to move from the hot side to the cold side, which creates an electric current.
These flexible devices are suitable for the most attractive waste heat sources, such as pipes in buildings, thermal power plants, etc. Such generators also do not need to be glued to surfaces.
“These results pave the way for the widespread use of thermoelectric technology for waste heat recovery,” said Wenji Li, one of the lead authors of the new study.
Tests carried out on a gas plant showed that the new device has a 150% higher power density than other analogs.
“Think of a standard industrial power plant with hundreds of meters of pipes. If we wrap our devices around such a large area, then kilowatts of energy can be generated from the wasted heat,” the researchers say.