IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v208y2017icp758-765.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Printed, metallic thermoelectric generators integrated with pipe insulation for powering wireless sensors

Author

Listed:
  • Iezzi, Brian
  • Ankireddy, Krishnamraju
  • Twiddy, Jack
  • Losego, Mark D.
  • Jur, Jesse S.

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT), coupled with advanced analytics, is poised to revolutionize manufacturing maintenance and efficiency. However, a practical route to powering these many IoT devices remains unclear. In this work, flexible thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are fabricated from low cost, screen printed silver and nickel inks before being integrated into a novel form factor device based on commercial steam pipe insulation. Through optimization of internal resistances and total device design, this 420-junction TEG device produces 308µW of power at a temperature difference of 127K. This is sufficient to power a temperature sensing circuit with wireless communication capabilities. In this report we demonstrate that, after an initial 4 h of charging, this TEG can power a standard RFduino microcontroller for 10 min while sending temperature readings every 30 s via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to a cell phone. Additional optimization and scaling could further increase system efficiency and provide a viable route to powering an industrial wireless sensing network (WSN).

Suggested Citation

  • Iezzi, Brian & Ankireddy, Krishnamraju & Twiddy, Jack & Losego, Mark D. & Jur, Jesse S., 2017. "Printed, metallic thermoelectric generators integrated with pipe insulation for powering wireless sensors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 758-765.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:208:y:2017:i:c:p:758-765
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.09.073
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261917313557
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.09.073?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stevens, Robert J. & Weinstein, Steven J. & Koppula, Karuna S., 2014. "Theoretical limits of thermoelectric power generation from exhaust gases," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 80-88.
    2. Lu, Zhisong & Zhang, Huihui & Mao, Cuiping & Li, Chang Ming, 2016. "Silk fabric-based wearable thermoelectric generator for energy harvesting from the human body," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 57-63.
    3. Madan, Deepa & Wang, Zuoqian & Wright, Paul K. & Evans, James W., 2015. "Printed flexible thermoelectric generators for use on low levels of waste heat," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 587-592.
    4. He, Wei & Zhang, Gan & Zhang, Xingxing & Ji, Jie & Li, Guiqiang & Zhao, Xudong, 2015. "Recent development and application of thermoelectric generator and cooler," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1-25.
    5. Suarez, Francisco & Parekh, Dishit P. & Ladd, Collin & Vashaee, Daryoosh & Dickey, Michael D. & Öztürk, Mehmet C., 2017. "Flexible thermoelectric generator using bulk legs and liquid metal interconnects for wearable electronics," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 736-745.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hyland, Melissa & Hunter, Haywood & Liu, Jie & Veety, Elena & Vashaee, Daryoosh, 2016. "Wearable thermoelectric generators for human body heat harvesting," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 518-524.
    2. Karalis, George & Tzounis, Lazaros & Lambrou, Eleftherios & Gergidis, Leonidas N. & Paipetis, Alkiviadis S., 2019. "A carbon fiber thermoelectric generator integrated as a lamina within an 8-ply laminate epoxy composite: Efficient thermal energy harvesting by advanced structural materials," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Wang, Yancheng & Shi, Yaoguang & Mei, Deqing & Chen, Zichen, 2017. "Wearable thermoelectric generator for harvesting heat on the curved human wrist," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 710-719.
    4. Yuan, Jinfeng & Zhu, Rong, 2020. "A fully self-powered wearable monitoring system with systematically optimized flexible thermoelectric generator," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 271(C).
    5. Liu, Shuang & Hu, Bingkun & Liu, Dawei & Li, Fu & Li, Jing-Feng & Li, Bo & Li, Liangliang & Lin, Yuan-Hua & Nan, Ce-Wen, 2018. "Micro-thermoelectric generators based on through glass pillars with high output voltage enabled by large temperature difference," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 600-610.
    6. Lv, Hao & Wang, Xiao-Dong & Wang, Tian-Hu & Cheng, Chin-Hsiang, 2016. "Improvement of transient supercooling of thermoelectric coolers through variable semiconductor cross-section," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 501-508.
    7. Eom, Yoomin & Wijethunge, Dimuthu & Park, Hwanjoo & Park, Sang Hyun & Kim, Woochul, 2017. "Flexible thermoelectric power generation system based on rigid inorganic bulk materials," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 649-656.
    8. Shittu, Samson & Li, Guiqiang & Akhlaghi, Yousef Golizadeh & Ma, Xiaoli & Zhao, Xudong & Ayodele, Emmanuel, 2019. "Advancements in thermoelectric generators for enhanced hybrid photovoltaic system performance," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 24-54.
    9. Yuan, Hengfeng & Qing, Shaowei & Ren, Shangkun & Rezania, Alireza & Rosendahl, Lasse & Wen, Xiankui & Zhong, Jingliang & Gou, Xiaolong & Tang, Shengli & E, Peng, 2023. "Modelling and optimization analysis of a novel hollow flexible-filler-based bulk thermoelectric generator for human body sensor," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    10. Chengshuo Xia & Daxing Zhang & Witold Pedrycz & Kangqi Fan & Yongxian Guo, 2019. "Human Body Heat Based Thermoelectric Harvester with Ultra-Low Input Power Management System for Wireless Sensors Powering," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-16, October.
    11. Huaibin Gao & Runchen Wang & Xiaojiang Liu & Yu Ma & Chuanwei Zhang, 2024. "Numerical Investigation of a Novel Heat Exchanger in a High-Temperature Thermoelectric Generator," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-18, February.
    12. Wang, Yancheng & Shi, Yaoguang & Mei, Deqing & Chen, Zichen, 2018. "Wearable thermoelectric generator to harvest body heat for powering a miniaturized accelerometer," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 690-698.
    13. Rasel, Mohammad Sala Uddin & Park, Jae-Yeong, 2017. "A sandpaper assisted micro-structured polydimethylsiloxane fabrication for human skin based triboelectric energy harvesting application," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 150-158.
    14. Shen, Rong & Gou, Xiaolong & Xu, Haoyu & Qiu, Kuanrong, 2017. "Dynamic performance analysis of a cascaded thermoelectric generator," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 808-815.
    15. Fan, Zeng & Zhang, Yaoyun & Pan, Lujun & Ouyang, Jianyong & Zhang, Qian, 2021. "Recent developments in flexible thermoelectrics: From materials to devices," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    16. Twaha, Ssennoga & Zhu, Jie & Yan, Yuying & Li, Bo, 2016. "A comprehensive review of thermoelectric technology: Materials, applications, modelling and performance improvement," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 698-726.
    17. Jang, Eunhwa & Banerjee, Priyanshu & Huang, Jiyuan & Madan, Deepa, 2021. "High performance scalable and cost-effective thermoelectric devices fabricated using energy efficient methods and naturally occuring materials," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    18. Sultana, Ayesha & Alam, Md. Mehebub & Middya, Tapas Ranjan & Mandal, Dipankar, 2018. "A pyroelectric generator as a self-powered temperature sensor for sustainable thermal energy harvesting from waste heat and human body heat," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 299-307.
    19. Lu, Zhisong & Zhang, Huihui & Mao, Cuiping & Li, Chang Ming, 2016. "Silk fabric-based wearable thermoelectric generator for energy harvesting from the human body," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 57-63.
    20. Kang, Miwon & Yeatman, Eric M., 2020. "Coupling of piezo- and pyro-electric effects in miniature thermal energy harvesters," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:208:y:2017:i:c:p:758-765. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.