It's estimated that more than half of U.S. energy—from vehicles and heavy equipment, for instance—is wasted as heat. Mostly, this waste heat simply escapes into the air. But that's beginning to change, thanks to thermoelectric ...
Energy & Green Tech
Aug 11, 2014
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Thermoelectric power generators that make electrical power from waste heat would be a useful tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if it weren't for a most vexing problem: The need to make electrical contacts to their hot ...
Materials Science
May 26, 2021
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Researchers at the University of Houston have created a new thermoelectric material, intended to generate electric power from waste heat - from a vehicle tailpipe, for example, or an industrial smokestack - with greater efficiency ...
Condensed Matter
Mar 3, 2015
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Northwestern University scientists have developed a thermoelectric material that is the best in the world at converting waste heat to electricity. This is very good news once you realize nearly two-thirds of energy input ...
Condensed Matter
Sep 19, 2012
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Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) are the power plants of the interplanetary spacecraft. Or at least they have been for going on 50 years now. But they have significant drawbacks, the primary one being that they're ...
Space Exploration
Aug 14, 2023
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(Phys.org)—Researchers have designed a quantum thermal transistor that can control heat currents, in analogy to the way in which an electronic transistor controls electric current. The thermal transistor could be used in ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- In everything from computer processor chips to car engines to electric powerplants, the need to get rid of excess heat creates a major source of inefficiency. But new research points the way to a technology ...
General Physics
Nov 18, 2009
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University of Minnesota engineering researchers in the College of Science and Engineering have recently discovered a new alloy material that converts heat directly into electricity. This revolutionary energy conversion method ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 22, 2011
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Directly converting electrical power to heat is easy. It regularly happens in your toaster, that is, if you make toast regularly. The opposite, converting heat into electrical power, isn't so easy.
General Physics
Jul 9, 2018
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in China and the US have modified a common thermoelectric material to vastly improve its thermoelectric properties. The development could lead to new devices capable of converting waste heat into ...
