Forced-flow thermocells that generate electric power during cooling

抄録

Active removal of the generated heat is necessary in many situations, such as in power semiconductors, CPUs in data centers, batteries, and heat engines. Existing thermoelectric conversion methods mostly use heat that has been ejected from the system and hence is utilizable without particular obligations. However, the integration of active cooling with thermoelectric power generation had not been explored previously. Since 2015, we have been creating and studying a new technology that integrates liquid-based thermoelectric conversion with forced convection cooling. In this report, we describe the concept of this technology and summarize our recent results.