Thermoelectrics

Thermoelectric effects become more and more a field of interest for industry, since with thermoelectric materials heat and cold can be produced directly from an electrical current. On the other hand from a heat current an electrical current can be produced directly – without additional processes.

Abb.1: Structure of Peltier devices

A Peltier device is basically a heat pump where an electrical current causes a heat flow in a semiconductor material. The flow of electrons with higher energy is favouring yielding in a heat transport. One side of the Peltier device is cooled down, the other side is heated up. This process is convertible so when applying a heat current to such a device, an electrical current is produced. This method opens the possibility to use waste heat that can be converted to an electrical current.

Abb.2: Principle of thermo-generator

The great advantage of directly converting the energy is that no mechanic losses occur and the converters are working completely maintenance free and are without any wear and tear.

So far, thermoelectric converters are quite unknown but during the next years these are expected to be used more frequently. The high cost of energy leads into a change to renewable energies. The use of waste heat implements a high growing potential with these converters.
Already nowadays any Peltier devices are used for cooling applications. Camping cooling boxes are probably the most common example for this. Furthermore the very efficient and simple controlling of the temperature via controlling the electric current in a Peltier device is used for the cooling of laser diodes.

Assembly of Peltier devices

Abb.3: Assembly of Peltier devices

More Infos:

Flyer "NanoThermel"

www.zts.com

www.dlr.de

Deutsche Thermoelektrik Gesellschaft