Thermogalvanic energy harvesting from forced convection cooling of 100–200 °C surfaces generating high power density

Abstract

Electrical power recovery from waste heat released during active cooling of 100–200 °C solids is of great importance because such situations are common in our world. However, the concept of simultaneous liquid cooling and electric power generation has been barely explored, apart from a few preliminary studies that showed power generation densities of only 0.05–0.5 W m⁻². Here, we report a realistically useful power generation density of 10 W m⁻² during liquid forced convection cooling of a 170 °C surface, thus demonstrating the feasibility of such a concept, based on thermogalvanic conversion with a redox couple. This was achieved by exploiting the fluid dynamics based on a microchannel concept, where a thin thermal boundary layer is formed on the hot surface, enabling both high cooling efficiency and large interelectrode temperature difference (>100 K). A new γ-butyrolactone-based high density electrolyte with sufficient stability against flame contact was used. Our combined cooling and thermogalvanic cell was able to continuously light LEDs and run air fans despite the small electrode area. Large values of heat transfer coefficient, up to 1160 W m⁻² K⁻¹, were achieved. At all flow rates tested, the electrical power obtained was 10 to 1000 times larger than the hydrodynamic pumping work required to force the liquid through the cell, that is, gain ≫1. Thus, this technological concept has been shown, for the first time, to be a feasible option to recover electrical power from the waste heat released during cooling of 100–200 °C surfaces, which are widespread in our world.