Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
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Posted on 11/21/2006 6:04:31 PM PST by Swordmaker
Apple is purportedly talking to small development company Eneco, which has developed a chip that converts heat into electricity. If it works, it could have a big impact on how IT equipment, and in particular laptops and other mobile devices, are designed and powered. However, there are still several technological issues to be resolved.
According to articles at Green Business News and Macworld UK, Dr Lew Brown, president and CEO of Eneco, told investors that its new chip technology “will revolutionize the way we generate electricity.” Eneco is a development stage company that claims to have invented and patented a “solid state energy conversion/generation chip” that will convert heat directly into electricity or alternatively refrigerate down to -200 degrees celsius when electricity is applied.
The chip is based on the principles of thermionic energy conversion whereby the energy of a hot metal over comes the electrostatic forces holding electrons to its surface. These free electrons then pass across a vacuum to a cold metal and in the process create an electronic charge that can be harnessed. “Talks with potential customers about how exactly the technology should be used are only at an early stage and even though firms such as Apple, Dell, Ford, BMW and Boeing are all interested there appear to be plenty of issues to iron out,” the Green Business News says. However, the report does point to a “lack of clarity” on some design matters, so it is unlikely that products wielding the technology will ship soon. Eneco’s Thermal Chip technology purportedly converts heat directly to electrical energy. The technology has two operating modes: Power Mode, which uses the Thermal Chip to convert heat directly to electricity; and Cooling Mode, which uses the Thermal Chip to convert electricity directly into solid-state cooling/refrigeration. ?Eneco says there are several advantages to its energy technology. It converts waste heat to electricity while producing no additional emissions. Dedicated heat sources can use bio-renewable fuel. The Cooling Mode is pollution-free with no compressors and no gases. And operation is acoustically and electrically quiet.
Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
PING!
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
How high will Apple stock go now?
"I think Apple will be a triple-digit stock in a matter of months, and that’s why my Elite Stock Trader subscribers are holding the shares."
ENECO's technology is based on the use of thermal diodes, which have no moving parts and convert heat directly into electricity. The concept is drawn from two established direct energy conversion technologies, thermoelectric energy conversion and thermionic energy conversion.
A thermionic converter consists of a heated plate, Metal 1, a cooled plate, Metal 2, a vacuum gap separating the plates, and an external electric circuit, which is open in the figure.
Right on, sounds just like a rehash of the peltier and seebeck effects. Isn't it funny how some people keep re-inventing the wheel. There MAY be something beyond this though : powerchips.gi This is a Josephson Junction chip of nano-thickness. Hot electrons tunnel through and cold electrons are held back, supposedly 70% efficient. It also works in cooling mode, 40% efficient. Borealis company is in intense negotiations to develop it, but it still hasn't made it out of the lab and into mass production yet. They are actually a metals-holding company based in Gibraltar and London, into many innovative things...
OK, so how much of the heat from the CPU can be converted to electricity and recycled to power the computer?
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