thermoelectric

Heat from car exhaust could improve mileage

Researchers are trying to find a useful outlet for cars' waste heat--namely their electrical load.

General Motors and BMW plan to test devices that will convert excess heat from a car's motor into electricity next year, according to an Associated Press report Sunday.

GM has built a prototype, a metal-plated device that will fit around an exhaust pipe. Researchers told AP that they expect that it could improve fuel efficiency in a Chevrolet Suburban by about 5 percent, or 1 mile per gallon. The improvements would be greater in smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Auto companies are working with thermoelectrics researchers at Ohio State University … Read more

Promethean Power uses the sun for cooling

Promethean Power Systems is an MIT spin-off that's swinging for the fences: using cutting-edge thermoelectronic technology, it wants to build a solar-powered refrigerator with no moving parts.

It plans to show off a prototype unit, designed specifically for rural areas in India, at the Emerging Technologies conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology next month.

If successful, the company's end product will be a small building to store milk, medicines, or other perishable goods in India and other places that don't have reliable electricity.

On the roof will be a small array of solar panels. Inside will … Read more

Researchers squeeze more electricity from heat

Researchers at Ohio State University have invented a new material that can generate electricity from heat in hot machine environments at an unprecedented rate.

The new material is called thallium-doped lead telluride.

The development could have a direct application for converting car engine exhaust heat into electricity, according to a statement from the university.

Using thermoelectric materials for generating power is not new. It is the group's improvements on this type of alloy that are newsworthy.

The group, led by Joseph Heremans, Ohio Eminent Scholar in Nanotechnology at Ohio State University, developed a material that is effective between 450 … Read more

Nanotech helps turn 'waste' heat into power

Update: The headline on this story was corrected to indicate that the research stems from nanotechnology.

Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Thursday they have developed a more efficient way to generate electricity from heat, a technology that could let product designers harness "waste" heat.

Researchers said the implications of efficient thermoelectric materials could be wide: car electronics could be partly powered by the heat captured from exhaust pipes, for example, and solar electric panels could become more productive.

The thermoelectric effect, known since the early 19th century, is when certain materials convert heat into … Read more

Good use for hot cars

Since you're using the gas anyway, why not convert the heat from your car engine into useful electricity?

That's the basic premise behind the work of Terry Tritt, professor and director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Center of Excellence in Thermoelectric Materials Research at Clemson University.

Thermoelectric generators are currently used to convent radioactive heat into electricity by NASA for deep space probes. The same technology could be applied to the automotive combustion cycle, which wastes more than 60 percent of its energy through heat, according to a paper Tritt delivered at the Alan MacDairmid … Read more