Thermal Energy Harvesting from Slow Variations in Environmental Temperatures

Curry, Joshua; Harris, Nick; White, NM

doi:10.3390/mi14061202

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…With the continuous development of intelligence and information technology, the world has entered the intelligent era [ 1 ], which requires clean, renewable and distributed energy to satisfy the huge energy demand of trillions of sensors worldwide [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Therefore, it is difficult for conventional methods of energy supply to meet these needs, which puts forward new requirements for energy supply.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Harvester with a Helix S-Type Vertical Axis to Capture Random Breeze Energy Efficiently

Zhang

Liang

et al. 2023

Micromachines

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Breeze energy is a widely distributed renewable energy source in the natural world, but its efficient exploitation is very difficult. The conventional harvester with fixed arm length (HFA) has a relatively high start-up wind speed owing to its high and constant rotational inertia. Therefore, this paper proposes a harvester with a helix s-type vertical axis (HSVA) for achieving random energy capture in the natural breeze environment. The HSVA is constructed with two semi-circular buckets driven by the difference of the drag exerted, and the wind energy is transferred into mechanical energy. Firstly, as the wind speed changes, the HSVA harvester can match the random breeze to obtain highly efficient power. Compared with the HFA harvester, the power coefficient is significantly improved from 0.15 to 0.2 without additional equipment. Furthermore, it has more time for energy attenuation as the wind speeds dropped from strong to moderate. Moreover, the starting torque is also better than that of HFA harvester. Experiments showed that the HSVA harvester can improve power performance on the grounds of the wind speed ranging in 0.8–10.1 m/s, and that the star-up wind speed is 0.8 m/s and output peak power can reach 17.1 mW. In comparison with the HFA harvester, the HSVA harvester can obtain higher efficient power, requires lower startup speed and keeps energy longer under the same time. Additionally, as a distributed energy source, the HSVA harvester can provide a self-generating power supply to electronic sensors for monitoring the surrounding environment.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Harvester with a Helix S-Type Vertical Axis to Capture Random Breeze Energy Efficiently

Zhang

Liang

et al. 2023

Micromachines

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“…Thermal energy is one of the most important forms of energy in the existing energy structure (Curry et al, 2023). Thermal storage technology can address the contradiction between the timing and intensity of thermal energy supply and demand, effectively reducing energy waste caused by the time difference in energy supply and demand.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental research on the effect of graphite on heat transfer performance of a latent heat storage system

Zhao,

Li,

Zhang

et al. 2023

Front. Energy Res.

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Phase change materials (PCMs) provide a good resolution for the latent heat storage system which can be used in many application fields such as solar energy utilization and waste heat recovery. This study aims to experimentally investigate the impact of graphite powder on the thermal characteristics and heat transfer performance of paraffin with ceresin (PC) as a PCM, using water as the heat transfer fluid. Experimental tests were conducted to analyze the heat transfer performance of PC and the influence of graphite powder on its thermal characteristics. Different masses of graphite powder were employed to assess their effects on the heating rate and the time required for PC to reach its melting temperature. The experimental results revealed that the addition of graphite powder improved the heating rate of both PC and water, attributed to its high thermal conductivity. Furthermore, the time for PC to reach the melting temperature was decreased with varying amounts of graphite powder, achieving a maximum reduction of 17.2% with the addition of 40 g of graphite powder. However, the effectiveness of graphite powder in enhancing heat transfer efficiency was found to be limited, with the optimal promotion effect observed at around 40 g of graphite powder for 500 g of PC. The findings of this investigation provide valuable insights for the design of phase change energy storage systems, with potential applications including heat pump drying units, greenhouse energy storage in modern agriculture, and solar energy storage utilization technology. The theoretical basis established can contribute to the development and optimization of PCM-based systems in diverse practical scenarios.

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Thermal Energy Harvesting from Slow Variations in Environmental Temperatures

Cited by 2 publications

References 16 publications

A Harvester with a Helix S-Type Vertical Axis to Capture Random Breeze Energy Efficiently

A Harvester with a Helix S-Type Vertical Axis to Capture Random Breeze Energy Efficiently

Experimental research on the effect of graphite on heat transfer performance of a latent heat storage system

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