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Turning Heat Into Sound Into Electricity
WrongSizeGlass writes "Science Daily is reporting on work by physicists at the University of Utah who have developed small devices that turn heat into sound and then into electricity. 'We are converting waste heat to electricity in an efficient, simple way by using sound [...] It is a new source of renewable energy from waste heat.' They report that technology holds promise for changing waste heat into electricity, harnessing solar energy and cooling computers and radars."
I just skimmed the article, but I didn't see mention of the efficiency of this process. What are the advantages to converting the heat to sound first, rather than directly to electricity via thermoelectric processes?
This would seem to say that I can take waste heat from my A/C heat-exchangers making them more efficient, and create electricity to drive said system and fans in the process. Given that it's about 100 degrees outside at this moment, this would be sweet!
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If it could be used to practically and economically extract the rest of the energy from nuclear waste, which still produces quite a bit of heat. 'Free' power for thousands of years.
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would it be possible to do something with a speaker? (as an experiment). I understand TFA about the piezeo devices being compressed/released by the plates vibrating like a flute, but I started wondering about the image that immediately popped into my head, of tuned diaphragms responding to air pressure differences to vibrate a coil... I guess if you did the flute thing, you could just put a piezo crystal between a tuning fork and a solid surface... every note at that frequency, especially if sustained, would then make power.... So, how about making great huge "moaning towers" out in the middle of nowhere that do the same thing? I'll call it "BULLROAR"(tm) technology. Hell.. I wonder if the forces involved on a bullroar spinning aroud your head might generate power (say, with a couterweight like thos rechargable watches). This idea is kinda fun.
meh
I've always wanted to try using the thermal dissipation of the processor to power its own cooling system. That is, create a pressurized case, and have an intake compressor that brings in cool air, which is heated by the processor(s), which is then sent out through a power-tapping device (turbine or piston) to power the compressor and keep things going.
Basically a Brayton-cycle cooling system. You could actually move a lot of air with 300W power dissipation! (way more than you can with a little 15 W cooling fan).
(Too bad the drawbacks are that it requires some pretty slick machinery and a pressure chamber :p )
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I know this is a bit off topic but given your post I just can't help but to respond with this: Toaster oven linux appliance :)
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Some Slashdotters have doubtless use Peltier devices to try to chill their massively overclocked PCs, but that's only one application of them: they can also be used in reverse to generate electricity from a thermal differential. I don't know how the efficiency would compare to this - an actual efficiency wasn't mentioned in TFA and I've never used a Peltier in this fashion - but I suspect it might be comparable. There's also the absence of moving parts to consider, too.
Not sure why my comment was considered off topic, the article even suggests PC use.. Toasters generate exuberant amounts of heat, an ideal source of electricity (using this new method) to power the toaster PC. hehe Anyways, cool link! This story reminded me of the BSD toaster that was /.'d a while back, which triggered my comment.