Thermomagnetic apparatus for electric power generation and method thereof
AssigneeFondazione Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia
InventorAlessandro Chiolerio
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A thermomagnetic apparatus for electric power production, comprising: a hollow toric vessel (30) delimited by a wall (31) having an outer toric surface (31a) having a toroidal direction, wherein the toric wall (31) encloses a volume containing a ferrofluid which comprises magnetic nanoparticles dispersed or suspended in a fluid carrier; a plurality of hydraulic conduits (36-39) in thermal contact with the outer toric surface (31a); a magnetic field source (62) coupled to the outer toric surface (62) and an extraction coil (65) which comprises a plurality of turns (65′) of electrical conductor wire arranged on the outer toric surface (31a).
Claims14
A thermomagnetic apparatus for electric power production, comprising:
- a hollow toric vessel delimited by a wall having an outer toric surface having a toroidal direction, wherein the toric wall encloses a volume containing a ferrofluid which comprises magnetic nanoparticles dispersed or suspended in a fluid carrier;
- a plurality of hydraulic conduits in thermal contact with the outer toric surface and arranged thereon along directions transverse to the toroidal direction, wherein near adjacent hydraulic conduits are spaced from each other in the toroidal direction so as to define on the outer toric surface a respective plurality of intermediate surface zones, each intermediate surface zone extending transversely to the toroidal direction;
- a magnetic field source coupled to the outer toric surface to generate a magnetic flux thereon, and
- an extraction coil which comprises a plurality of turns of electrical conductor wire arranged on the outer toric surface, the turns of the extraction coil being wound along directions transverse to the toroidal direction and arranged at at least a first sub-plurality of the plurality of intermediate surface zones.
A method for harvesting electric power using thermomagnetic energy, comprising:
- providing a hollow toric vessel delimited by a wall having an outer toric surface having a toroidal direction, wherein the toric wall encloses a volume containing a ferrofluid which comprises magnetic nanoparticles dispersed or suspended in a fluid carrier;
- generating a plurality of temperature gradients along the toroidal direction creating a plurality of surface zones extending on the outer toric surface transversely to the toroidal direction and in an alternating fashion between a relatively higher temperature and a relatively lower temperature, so as to create a difference in temperature in each pair of near adjacent surface zones, each temperature gradient of the plurality of gradients being represented by a vector tangent to the outer toric surface of scalar value equal to the temperature difference;
- generating a magnetic flux on the outer toric surface and having a vector direction tangent to the same surface, and
- harvesting electric current from an extraction coil, the extraction coil comprising a plurality of turns of conductive electric wire, the turns being arranged on the outer toric surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.