Harvesting waste heat energy by promoting H+-ion concentration difference with a fuel cell structure
Release Time:2025-04-30
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- Date:
- 2025-04-30
- Title of Paper:
- Harvesting waste heat energy by promoting H+-ion concentration difference with a fuel cell structure
- Journal:
- Nano Energy
- Summary:
- Energy consumption continues to rise as society develops worldwide. Meanwhile, a lot of energy is wasted in the form of heat from various devices and systems. Here we report a new power generator, which works based on a difference in H+-ion concentration in a fuel cell structure and produces electricity by harvesting waste heat. The device works via the following three successive processes: H2 is oxidized at anode to H+ ions, the H+ ions then penetrate through a phosphoric acid-treated polybenzimidazole (PBI-PA) membrane and finally the H+ ions get reduced to H2 at cathode with electrons coming through external circuit from the anode. This system generates electricity at a current density of 21 mA cm−2 and a power density of 1.03 mW cm−2 at 170 °C. The cell's thermoelectric conversion efficiency at 170 °C is 13.72%, which is higher than typical values reported for many common thermoelectric materials in low temperature regimes. This innovative approach may allow for efficient generation of electricity from waste heat.
- Co-author:
- Liu, Yan Chen, Yuanzhen Ming, Jun Chen, Li Shu, Chengyong Qu, Ting Tan, Qiang Li
- Translation or Not:
- No
- Date of Publication:
- 2019-03-01
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