International internship has arrived in a technology that looks like a simple one pillBut that is actually a product that can challenge physical limits. This piece appears in response to the intense search for people of new and sustainable ways to obtain energy. Both use and energy generation even have a lot of importance for society for various reasons.
The first is because energy is required for the optimal functioning of different basic industries and services such as lighting, heating, transport, communication and production of goods and services. If we had no energies, many of these activities would become practically impossible.
Moreover, the way we produce and use energy has a significant impact on the environment and health of citizens. Currently, much of the energy it uses comes from non -renewable sources such as oil, natural gas and coal. All finite sources and with a combustion that releases greenhouse gases.
However, more and more renewable projects are being implemented in the world and technologies such as these “pill“That they can change the energy crossing.
This “pill” challenges physical boundaries and breaks with one of the major problems of humanity
In this context, a group of engineers of the Colorado University Boulder They have designed a new technology that is able to transform remaining heat into electricity, so that the physical limits of thermal physics we have known so far. These experts from Mechanical Engineering Department Paul M. RadyHe CUI Research GroupThey were led by the university teacher Longji cui.
The specialist did his work in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The discoveries they made were reflected in the magazine Energy and environmental sciences.
The research houses the potential to shake the production industry by increasing electrical production without resorting to heat sources at high temperature or expensive materials.
This device can store clean energy, reduce the carbon emissions and benefit from the remaining warmth, the origin of which is in geothermal and solar plants around the world. A way to produce electricity quite far from what we are used to seeing in projects such as this wind turbine that speeds up the wind and multiplies electricity.
This “pill” reused the heat to create electricity
Industrial processes performed at a high temperature and some renewable energy consumption use thermal conversion systems that are mentioned Termofotovoltaicos (TPV). These are devices that are responsible for converting the thermal energy that comes from heat sources into electricity.
But so far they had a limitation: the Planck’s Thermal radiation law. It is a basic principle of thermal physics that sets a limit on the amount of thermal energy that can benefit from a certain temperature.
The team of the team of the Colorado University Boulder has made a device TPV Historical, because it is a compact piece that has overcome this physical defect. This innovation has made it possible to double the power density achieved by designs TPV traditional
This pill has exceeded a physical limit that was assumed unbreakable
To destroy this limit, the team integrated into the “Zero Vacuum Space” design. The models TPV Conventionally, use a space full of openings or gas between the heat source and the solar cell. However, this new model uses a glass of insulation channel, high index and transparent for infrared.
This material is developing a high power density channel that agrees that heat waves cross the device without energy loss, which greatly improves electrical production. Added to this, Glass is an economic and accessible sourceWhich makes this device an economically viable alternative.
It makes it possible to work at lower temperatures, compatible with most industrial mechanisms. The most ambitious application would be to stimulate portable energy generators and to contribute to the discarking process of high emissions industry.
Currently, this pill It has a patent in process, with an optimistic perspective on its potential. While its authorization arrives, the world trusts this octagonal solar panel, presented as the future of energy.