It is estimated that in the United States vehicles and heavy equipment, about half of the energy is wasted as heat. In most cases, this heat is emitted into the air. But Chen Gang from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has changed this situation. About a decade ago, Prof. Richard Soderberger used thermoelectric conversion materials to convert temperature differences into electrical energy. Chen Gang used nanotechnology to restructure this, greatly improving the working efficiency of materials and paving the way for lower-cost thermoelectric conversion equipment.
Chen Gang and Ren Zhifeng of the University of Houston co-founded GMZ Energy. The company used this technology to build a thermoelectric generator (TEG), which is a one square inch, one-quarter inch thick module sample, which will put the vehicle Emissions of waste heat are converted into electricity and reused. In many TEGs, atomic vibrations of the material will transfer the temperature, reducing the use of thermal energy. GMZ's method substantially slows the heat leak, which will increase performance by 30% to 60%.
The company's TEG high temperature surface can withstand temperatures of about 600 degrees Celsius, while its cold end can stay below 100 degrees Celsius. In this temperature difference, a 4 cm2 module can generate 7.2 watts of power. If the module is installed in the exhaust pipe of a car, this will reduce the load on the vehicle generator, reduce fuel costs and overall emissions. At present, GMZ has successfully generated 200 watts of TEG and received US$1.5 million in investment from the US Department of Energy (DOE). Their goal is to deploy equipment in various locations where energy is severely lost, thereby enabling secondary energy use.
Jiangsu Manrui New Materials Co., Ltd , https://www.manruiwire.com