Photon enhanced thermoelectric power generation
AssigneeHRL Laboratories, LLC
InventorsDaniel Yap, David S. Sumida
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for generating electrical power from a heat source utilizing both photonic and thermal conversion are disclosed. Specifically, power is generated by coupling photon converters to thermoelectric pairs in a way such that the thermoelectric pairs gain not only the charge carriers (holes and electrons) generated by the photons absorbed by the photon converters, but also the charge carriers generated by excess heat in the photon converters and an added thermal gradient generated by excess energy in the absorbed photons. Heat exchanger variations for such a system are also disclosed. Specifically, heat exchangers with and without photon emitters are disclosed and variants of refractive indices for heat exchanger systems are disclosed.
Claims18
A system for generating power from a thermal source comprising:
- a heat exchanger element having a first side facing the thermal source and a second side opposite the first side facing the thermal source;
- a first column of thermoelectric pairs and a parallel second column of thermoelectric pairs,
- wherein each thermoelectric pair in each column comprises:
- a P-type thermoelectric element having a first end adjacent the heat exchanger element and a second end opposite the first end;
- an N-type thermoelectric element having a first end adjacent the heat exchanger element and a second end opposite the first end;
- a first conductor connected between the first end of the P-type thermoelectric element and the first end of the N-type thermoelectric element and in contact with the second side of the heat exchanger element;
- and
- wherein each column comprises a plurality of second conductors, each second conductor connected between the second end of the P-type thermoelectric element of one thermoelectric pair in the column and the second end of the N-type thermoelectric element of one adjacent thermoelectric pair in the column;
- and
- a plurality of photo converters, each photon converter coupled between the first end of one of the N-type thermoelectric elements in the first column of thermoelectric pairs and the first end of one of the P-type thermoelectric elements in the second column of thermoelectric pairs.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.