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Energy harvesting from atmospheric variations – Theory and test

Author

Listed:
  • Ali, Gibran
  • Wagner, John
  • Moline, David
  • Schweisinger, Todd

Abstract

The last two decades have offered a dramatic rise in the use of digital technologies such as wireless sensor networks that require small isolated power supplies. Energy harvesting, a method to gather energy from ambient sources including sunlight, vibrations, heat, etc., has provided some success in powering these systems. One of the unexplored areas of energy harvesting is the use of atmospheric temperature variations to obtain usable energy. This paper investigates an innovative device to extract energy from atmospheric variations using ethyl chloride filled mechanical bellows. The apparatus consists of a bellows filled with ethyl chloride working against a spring in a closed and controlled environment. The bellows expand/contract depending upon the ambient temperature and the energy harvested is calculated as a function of the bellows' length. The experiments showed that 6 J of energy may be harvested for a 23 °C change in temperature. The numerical results closely correlated to the experimental data with a deviation of 1%. In regions with high diurnal temperature variation, such an apparatus may yield approximately 250 μW depending on the ambient temperature range.

Suggested Citation

  • Ali, Gibran & Wagner, John & Moline, David & Schweisinger, Todd, 2015. "Energy harvesting from atmospheric variations – Theory and test," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 528-535.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:74:y:2015:i:c:p:528-535
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2014.08.033
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    Cited by:

    1. Delfani, Fatemeh & Rahbar, Nader & Aghanajafi, Cyrus & Heydari, Ali & KhalesiDoost, Abdollah, 2021. "Utilization of thermoelectric technology in converting waste heat into electrical power required by an impressed current cathodic protection system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    2. Helseth, L.E. & Guo, X.D., 2016. "Fluorinated ethylene propylene thin film for water droplet energy harvesting," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 845-851.
    3. Wenyi Tang & Ke Zhang & Dingde Jiang, 2018. "Physarum-inspired routing protocol for energy harvesting wireless sensor networks," Telecommunication Systems: Modelling, Analysis, Design and Management, Springer, vol. 67(4), pages 745-762, April.
    4. Li, Zhongjie & Zhao, Li & Wang, Junlei & Yang, Zhengbao & Peng, Yan & Xie, Shaorong & Ding, Jiheng, 2023. "Piezoelectric energy harvesting from extremely low-frequency vibrations via gravity induced self-excited resonance," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 546-555.

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