Thermoelectric Generator With No Moving Parts

Savage-Rabbit writes "These guys have produced a working prototype of a thermoelectric generator. The thing uses extremely cold and hot liquids to achieve a heat transfer through a semiconducting material. This produces a voltage in the semiconductor who can produce up to 50-100 Watts which is actually enough for this thing to have practical uses. This generator could for example be useful in the chemical industry where many production processes generate a lot of excess heat that normally is simply lost. With a thermoelectric generator some of that lost energy could be recovered."

Comments

Thermodynamics

[mortis_aeturnus]

Wow, they have finally broken the Second Law of Thermodynamics! The Second Law prohibits the transfer of useful work from a high entropy source (heat) into a low entropy source (an electric current). The Second Law implies that once energy becomes heat then it remains as heat which will dissipate to the surroundings causing an overall increase of entropy in the system. With this generator, we can finally decrease entropy in the world by turning heat into electricity! We can refigerate not only without expending energy, but we get some work for it! We can make black holes smaller by sucking the entropy from it. Finally we can make a perpetual motion machine!

Yankee Stadium

[TheSHAD0W]

I figure, if they used cool water from the Hudson for the cold side, and warm, um, liquid from the urinals for the hot side, they could get the lighting for night games for free!

Though they might want to lower the prices on soda and beer, just to keep things flowing.

Perpetual Motion?

[crisco]

Does this mean I can water cool my Athlon and keep the computer powered off the waste heat?

oh a wicked idea comes to mind

[sckeener]

This generator could for example be useful in the chemical industry where many production processes generate a lot of excess heat that normally is simply lost.

I have a request. I need something that works with body temp and here's what I'd do:
Flip the power breakers off the night of my honey's favorite movie and tell her that the backup generator works off body heat. Oh course it'd be my luck that she'd tell me to start doing jumping jacks....