+- Google Alerts on Thermoelectrics 20080110
Recent Google searches on thermoelectrics turned up (in no particular order):
- Nextreme Thermal SolutionsTM announces Ultra-High Packing Fraction (UPF) OptoCooler module
- “The OptoCooler module is the industry’s first thermoelectric device to offer a heat pumping density in excess of 70 W/cm2, a ten-fold increase in heat pumping capacity over conventional TEC modules,” said Dave Koester, Vice President of Engineering at Nextreme. Available now and can be purchased for $12 in unit volumes of 1000’s.
- Super Soaker Inventor Aims to Cut Solar Costs in Half
- Lonnie Johnson, inventor of the "Super Soaker", has a new invention: JTEC (Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Conversion System). JTEC is a kind of closed-cycle fuel cell where hydrogen circulates between two membrane-electrode assemblies. According to the Popular Mechanics article, efficiency approaches the Carnot ideal.
- Advances in Energy Harvesting Technologies
- Frost and Sullivan have produced a report on possible energy harvesting technologies, including thermoelectrics. An overview and the table of contents are available online.
- Honda sees Clarity as future
- S.A.R.A.H. the RTG powered home!?!
- It was news to me, but there is a TV show called Eureka. The show features the home of the future known as "Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat" (aka S.A.R.A.H.). Electrical power is supposedly provided by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. Seriously.
- Tiny devices harvest heat from machines to power sensors
- An industry promo piece on Micropelt, highlighting that "Micropelt is producing kits (shown above) that allow potential users to evaluate its energy-harvesting technology." Nice photo.
- Fête Keeps Constant Temperature
- I’d seen thermoelectric hot/cold plates for laboratory use but this is the first consumer product along those lines: a thermoelectric hot/cold serving plate. Seems to be a prototype at this time.
- World’s First Commercial Solar Thermoelectric Power Plant
- Thermoelectric, yes: it converts heat to electricity. But no thermocouples: it concentrates sunlight to generate 250 oC heat, which makes steam to run a turbine. It generates 11 MW, enough to power about 6000 homes.