Near-field thermophotonic systems for low-grade waste heat recovery

Bo Zhao

doi:10.1117/12.2618449

30 May 2022 Near-field thermophotonic systems for low-grade waste heat recovery

Bo Zhao

Proceedings Volume PC12090, Energy Harvesting and Storage: Materials, Devices, and Applications XII; PC1209003 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2618449
Event: SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing, 2022, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

The low-grade heat wasted globally contains an enormous amount of exergy that can be recovered for renewable energy generation. Current solid-state techniques for recovering low-grade waste heat, such as thermoelectric generators and thermophotovoltaics, are still limited by low conversion efficiencies or power densities. In this work, we propose a high-performance solid-state near-field thermophotonic system. We utilize the thermal radiation from nonequilibrium bodies by replacing the passive emitters in traditional thermophotovoltaic systems with electrically biased light-emitting-diodes (LEDs). we show that the proposed system can achieve a power density of 24.4 W/cm2 and a conversion efficiency of 15.5%, significantly outperforming the current record-setting thermoelectric generators. We also propose an electronic circuit design for the system by feeding part of the power produced by the PV cell back to the LED, to make the whole system self-sustaining.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Bo Zhao "Near-field thermophotonic systems for low-grade waste heat recovery", Proc. SPIE PC12090, Energy Harvesting and Storage: Materials, Devices, and Applications XII, PC1209003 (30 May 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2618449

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