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Direct conversion of heat to electricity
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Printed on: 02/24/2005
Topic: 

Topic author: donpatent
Subject: Direct conversion of heat to electricity
Posted on: 10/09/2004 18:16:41
Message:
I have my eye on a couple of developments which hold some promise. One involves CNTs and comes from Sang H. Choi of Langley Research Center:
http://www.nasatech.com/Briefs/Mar03/LAR16222.html

The other comes from Boeing and involves a gap of one nanometer between electrodes to encourage electron tunneling:

Link to Boeing development

With oil barrelling upward beyond US$50/barrel, we need a Manhattan Project of sorts to overcome this impediment to progress and our collective well being, IMO.

CNTs and one nanometer gaps - two attributes that I think NNPP could handle real well. 

We shall see!
Replies: 

Reply author: EKennel
Replied on: 10/11/2004 20:43:59
Message:
Donpatent,
I also have been following work on electron cooling and heating, which depends on the same physics as electron emission for displays. Oddly, in the other NNPP thread, I had mentioned that Thermoelectron Inc had become a Fortune 500 company, but had never developed the thermionic converter that they had originally set out to commercialize some 40 years ago. But the Boeing patent you kindly called to our attention seems to be actually a variant of a thermionic converter! What goes around, comes around I guess. BTW, Gary Fitzpatrick of Space Power Inc (since bought up by Pratt and Whitney) had championed a similar small-gap converter idea for a while in the US, as well as Rafail Ya. Kucherov at the Luch Institute in Podolsk, Russia.

Reply author: donpatent
Replied on: 10/12/2004 14:01:53
Message:
One other company worth mentioning is Borealis Technical which has been into this thermionic tunneling for CoolChips and PowerChips for a good while now with no commercial offering yet. 

I searched to see how widespread the interest is in this thermionic stuff and found but one source of note titled - Novel Thermophotovoltaic Device for Direct Heat to Electricity Conversion 
Status, Plans, Connections to NASA's Mission and Vision and to the Space Architect's Capability Requirements:

http://www.macrovu.com/image/PVT/NASA/RPC/uc%3DThermoVoltaic.v3.pdf

So, the government through NASA seem to be carrying the ball - but this Boeing development may be THE one that goes commercial. Finally! 

I've heard nothing in the news media about this Boeing development - I even emailed an article writer for Boeing asking for more info - all to no avail, so far. I do get so excited when I see something like this which can have such a large and important impact on our power hungry lives. Then I wait and wait and wait to ultimate disappointment. Maybe this time....

One other company I must mention, as well, since they tried and failed - I never heard of it on the market - was GE. Here is one of their patents on the subject:
USP 3,176,164 Beggs. It can best be accessed here - 

5 patents altogether including US 3,176,164

And one more thermionic participant - ENECO with Dr. Yan Kucherov and Prof. Peter Hagelstein:

http://www.eneco-usa.com/default.htm

Reply author: EKennel
Replied on: 10/12/2004 19:29:32
Message:
Hello Donpatent,
It turns out that Yan Kucherov is Rafail Kucherov's son. So the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. ENECO is an intellectual property house, basically. 
Thermophotovoltaics is far different than thermionics. Basically, TPV deals with photocells, i.e., like solar cells, except that they convert infrared (thermal) photons rather than optical. The Beggs stuff from GE is before my time. Beggs was a contemporary of George Hatsopoulos who started Thermoelectron Corporation. Other heavy hitters were Rasor Associates, General Atomics, Space Power Inc and Xerox (which eventually became Loral EOS and has since been purchased by another aerospace corporation, but I forget which). 
I don't know much about Borealis, other than they have been working with Boeing for a while, and are interested in electron emission physics and devices.

Reply author: donpatent
Replied on: 10/13/2004 07:58:07
Message:
I think that the sun as a source of radiant heat - rather than just photons - can be used to provide the thermal energy to a thermionic conversion chip. I want my next car to be powered by a Boeing Thermal Unit (BTU) Engine! Whether the heat comes from a fuel supply on board or the sun shinning above matters not. Boeing and most of the rest you mentioned seem to have been involved because of the energy needs of SPACE craft. That's the high end of the market. Where the BIG money will be made, IMO, is here on earth from every energy source be it waste heat, solar, or fuel conversion - all providing an electric power supply for everything imaginable. First space, though, then the military, as usual, then US!

Reply author: donpatent
Replied on: 11/05/2004 16:19:25
Message:
I am truly amazed! Not one word from Boeing, or anyone else. If this device that Boeing has developed and is in the process of patenting works efficiently and is reproducible reliably and easily using semiconductor production techniques it could well revolutionize our lives insofar as energy consumption and the means we now use to power things...like cars for instance. No IC engine, just an assembly of these Boeing chips, heated on one side and converting that energy directly to electricity for use in powering electric motors. And the sun too could supply the heat! Or waste energy. I keep looking and will continue to do so, but it does make me wonder...why the silence? It's no secret! It's published for all to read! Of course the patent publications are not the popular press that's for sure. Maybe I'll contact The New York Times...or go one better and contact Josh Wolfe. But Boeing...big...what impact could this have on them? It could be their making! 'They used to make planes sonny', the grandad ex Boeing employee says to his grandson...'back in 2004.' And where does NNPP enter this picture? ASAP! How? I'm not sure! But a 1nm gap is involved and NNPP knows nms! 'Nano', after all, is part of their name.

Reply author: EKennel
Replied on: 11/06/2004 06:11:54
Message:
"If this device that Boeing has developed and is in the process of patenting works efficiently and is reproducible reliably and easily using semiconductor production techniques it could well revolutionize our lives insofar as energy consumption and the means we now use to power things" Well maybe it doesn't. It's only the first patent, and might very well be based only on the preliminary idea. They may well have filed based on the first concept. If you look at the drawings, they are very crude. I don't get an impression that the device has been built yet, do you?

Reply author: donpatent
Replied on: 11/06/2004 17:00:06
Message:
In fact I actually do get the impression it has been built. I found the specification quite far from a bare bones concept and quite detailed in how the device would be made - in fact I thought it looked close to the point of production. Funny how the same document effected us in exactly opposite ways - poles apart! If, in fact, there are wrinkles to be ironed out that require further inventive steps to solve we could well have to wait. But it didn't strike me that ANYTHING more was required. They had the semiconductor steps all well laid out with every step set forth to make the individual electrodes on wafers, join them solidly face to face, then zap them with enough current to effect the 1nm gap. Somebody at BA thought it was worthy of filing. We shall see how it goes, eventually. So far, from what I have seen - NOTHING - it could be nothing more than a great big dud. OTOH.....!!!!!

Reply author: donpatent
Replied on: 01/28/2005 15:40:45
Message:
This thermoelectric refrigerator/electric power generator could be big and important for home/car air conditioning, kitchen refrigerators, and refrigeration purposes generally and the use of waste heat and solar energy or any heat source in generating electricity.

From Penn State University, by the look of it.

How does one get on board? Unknown. However it bears watching and follow-up, IMHO.

From the patent filing in the USPTO:
********************************************************************
NALIN KUMAR, United States Patent Application 20050016575 (LIKELY PENN STATE)
January 27, 2005, Priority Date June 13, 2003
Field emission based thermoelectric device
..........
What we claim as our invention is:
1. A device comprising an assembly containing a thermoelectric device and one or more other devices where these other devices act as electrically conducting but thermally insulating elements.
2. A device of claim 1, where the electrically conducting but thermally insulating elements are field emission devices.
..........

The tips can be made from either metals such as molybdenum, tungsten, nickel and copper, from semiconductors such as silicon, gallium arsenide and gemanium, or from other materials such as graphite, diamond, carbon nanotubes, or from a combination thereof.
...........

[0044] When silicon tips are used, it is possible to obtain large emitted electron current density from these tips at an electric field of 0.5 MV/m (megavolts per meter). Using a device gap of 100 nm and a modest emitted current density of 1 ampere per square cm, we obtain a cooling capacity of almost 1 watt per square cm. Since the applied voltage is only 0.05 volts, the efficiency is almost 95% of the Carnot efficiency. This is much higher than 5-10% for prior art thermoelectric coolers and 40-50% for the mechanical coolers.
*******************************************************************

Link to US 20050016575
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FP...

Link to RB message 1
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=BOREF&read=8321

Link to RB message 2 re Penn State involvement
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=NNPP&read=9534

Reply author: donpatent
Replied on: 01/30/2005 17:51:00
Message:
PSU/KUMAR/UHV TECHNOLOGIES INC/NNPP

KUMAR's inventive material used in the PSU work
Link to Kumar USP 5,399,238 (Assigned to NNPP)

Link to Kumar USP 5,312,514 (Assigned to NNPP)

A Highly Efficient Thermoelectric Cryocooler 
Nalin Kumar, UHV Technologies, Inc.
Link to SBIR grant to UHV Technologies
http://www.winmda.com/scripts/asp/abstract.asp?log=0469&Phase=1&Ph1Yr=99&firm_id=2928&int=99

Emissive and Cooling Properties of Carbon Based Materials for Microelectronics 
N. M. Miskovsky, P. H. Cutler, A. Mayera, and Peter B. Lerner 
Department of Physics 104 Davey Laboratory The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802 
ABSTRACT
Among carbon-based materials, diamond and nanotubes exhibit field emission characteristics, which can be very 
useful for applications.
Link to paper
http://www.fundp.ac.be/~amayer/paper38.pdf

Link to RB message
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=NNPP&read=9542

Starting small, thinking big
City-funded incubator aims to foster new technology firms
Higgs also ran into Nalin Kumar, president of UHV Technologies in New Jersey, while giving a speech on small-business innovation research. Higgs persuaded the molecular biologist to relocate to Tech Fort Worth. Kumar's small operation had already received a $1 million Defense Department contract to continue development 
of its nanotechnology.
Link to newspaper article on UHV Technologies relocating to Fort Worth dated Jul. 19, 2004
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/9189009.htm 

Reply author: erich
Replied on: 02/19/2005 15:19:44
Message:
Dear Folks,
After seing this I sent a post to Rodney Cox president of Borealis http://www.powerchips.gi/ I also asked him about Boeing's patent,and he did not reply to that.

You should read this speech given by Rodney Cox to IBM, it will give you a chuckle, shades of "too cheap to meter" http://www.borealis.gi/press/NEW-GOLDEN-AGE-IBM.Speech.6=04.pdf

"Dear Mr. Cox,

Were you aware of this patent application? Does it conflict with your device?

View topic - 95 percent Carnot Efficiency--Is it a Joke... 

Regards,

Erich J. Knight"

And his reply:

"Erich

We know Kumar very well. He is using tips that may be 1 micron across.

He is trying very hard to work around out patents.

His device is not an 8" wafer or even a 1 cm2 wafer

He is probably 95% of Carnot at the ends of the tips he is using.

The geometry is very interesting-I suppose he is 5% of carnot for maybe 5 to 10% of the surface area if he is very lucky and very clever.

IMMHO Kumar's device just does not cut it.

rtc"

And when I got home today, he called!! So now I'm getting my ducks in a row so when I call him back he won't think I'm an idiot. So if you look over his technology, and have any questions or comments that you would like to see addressed, please email me. Or, please send this on to anyone you know in the field who could provide any comments or questions. I'm so antsy, this guy is president of a multi 
million dollar corporation, and I want to get it right. 

I got into this doing nano-tech research, discovering and investing in Borealis. Their other technology includes Chorus Motors, an electric drive that overcomes harmonic drag, and produces 300% greater torque at an equal load. They just recently got a contract from Boeing for in the hub motors for airliner ground propulsion. And of course Power Chips and Cool Chips. 

Erich

erich

Reply author: donpatent
Replied on: 02/19/2005 19:29:04
Message:
erich, ask RTC if and when his chip will be on sale - try to nail him down on THAT! I bet he will say 'soon'. 'Real soon', 'just around the corner' even. But it is always so. I've given up waiting. I think it is just too difficult to make the thing work commercially. Tell him, as I do and have, that the best way to invest in Borealis or Chorus or any of the others is to wait till they actually sell something. Then invest based on the sales generated. 

JMHHO.

Reply author: dnwpiv
Replied on: 02/20/2005 18:29:40
Message:

ERICH,

Ask RTC how POWERCHIPS compares to iCurie Labs cooling technology. 

Thanks----DNWPIV

Reply author: donpatent
Replied on: 02/21/2005 07:25:23
Message:
erich - there is another interesting development of late that you should be aware of. It comes from RTI and the newly established company is called Nextreme Thermal Solutions.

Here are my notes (You can access these here with all the links working):
RTI - Rama Venkatasubramanian - Nextreme Thermal Solutions
Breakthroughs in Thermoelectrics
Link to article on Rama Venkatasubramanian
Link to article on Breakthroughs in Thermoelectrics
Link to article on Cold Cathode Emitters
Link to RB message
email address:rama@rti.org

Cool Operator
Interview by Karen Auguston Field
Design News
June 16, 2003
Link to interview

Superlattice Thermoelectric Technology - February 18, 2004
Link to pdf file

More efficient and reliable refrigerators and air conditioners a step closer to reality - March, 2003
Link to article

Nano-structured Thermoelectric Materials Nano-structured Thermoelectric Materials
8th Diesel Engine Emissions Reduction Conference
Loews Coronado Bay Resort
San Diego, CA
August 25, 2002
Link to PDF PowerPoint file

Superlattices Chill Hot Processors
By Henry S. Kenyon
Tiny heat pumps offer rapid cooling for electronics, fiber optics.
Re commercialization
Supported by DARPA and ONR funding, the institute has developed several prototype devices to prove the technology works, Venkatasubramanian says. One technology demonstrator built by RTI scientists allows a user to observe a temperature drop or increase when he or she presses a switch or reverses the current. The prototype can generate a cooling of 32 degrees Celsius at room temperature. Beyond this example, the institute is moving quickly to develop the technology for use in existing devices. Solid-state cooling/heating systems for fiber optics and wafer-scale cooling for microchips are the alloy’s most immediate applications. Venkatasubramanian predicts that RTI may have a product ready within a year.
Because RTI is a nonprofit research organization, it is spinning off a company to make commercial prototypes. This new firm will conduct prototype fabrication runs and develop a manufacturing plan for producing large volumes of thermoelectric devices. He notes that some 35 companies are interested in the technology.
Link to article

nanoElectronics & Photonics Forum Conference
Full Day Event - Palo Alto, CA - April 15, 2004
Link to Forum Conference

Thin-film thermoelectric devices with
high room-temperature figures of merit
Link to PDF file

US PATENTS
6,300,150
Link

6,505,468
Link

6,662,570
Link

6,722,140
Link

Nextreme Thermal Solutions
Nextreme Thermal Solutions Raises $8 Million in Series A Financing
RTI International spin-off to commercialize breakthrough thermoelectric material
Link to Nextreme
Link to PR

Reply author: erich
Replied on: 02/22/2005 10:08:37
Message:
Hey Dnwpiv:After reviewing icurie I sent this to RTC:

At 08:28 AM 2/22/2005, Shengar@aol.com wrote:

"Dear Rodney:

I plan to call you in a few days, as soon as I correlate the Questions I have gathered. However this link ,I felt you should be aware of:
Nano Tsunami.com - Nano Electronics in depth 
They seem closer to market than Cool Chips, but I thought their technology may offer synergies with yours, why dump the heat when one can use it.

Talk to ya soon

Erich"

"Erich

Sure we are aware of the technology.

The handling of fluids in mirochannels is not easy.

For now we are definitely amused.

rtc"

erich

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