Membrane-Free Battery for Harvesting Low-Grade Thermal Energy
Abstract
Efficient and low-cost systems are desired to harvest the tremendous amount of energy stored in low-grade heat sources (<100 °C). An attractive approach is the thermally regenerative electrochemical cycle (TREC), which uses the dependence of electrode potential on temperature to construct a thermodynamic cycle for direct heat-to-electricity conversion. By varying the temperature, an electrochemical cell is charged at a lower voltage than discharged; thus, thermal energy is converted to electricity. Recently, a Prussian blue analog-based system with high efficiency has been demonstrated. However, the use of an ion-selective membrane in this system raises concerns about the overall cost, which is crucial for waste heat harvesting. We report on a new membrane-free battery with a nickel hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF) cathode and a silver/silver chloride anode. The system has a temperature coefficient of -0.74 mV K–1. When the battery is discharged at 15 °C and recharged at 55 °C, thermal-to-electricity conversion efficiencies of 2.6% and 3.5% are achieved with assumed heat recuperation of 50% and 70%, respctively. This work opens new opportunities for using membrane-free electrochemical systems to harvest waste heat.
- Authors:
-
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering; SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Inst. for Materials and Energy Sciences
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1385292
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0001299; FG02-09ER46577; EE0005806; AC02-76SF00515
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Nano Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 14; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 1530-6984
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 25 ENERGY STORAGE; low-grade thermal energy; battery; TREC; thermally regenerative electrochemical cycle; membrane-free; electrochemical systems
Citation Formats
Yang, Yuan, Loomis, James, Ghasemi, Hadi, Lee, Seok Woo, Wang, Yi Jenny, Cui, Yi, and Chen, Gang. Membrane-Free Battery for Harvesting Low-Grade Thermal Energy. United States: N. p., 2014.
Web. doi:10.1021/nl5032106.
Yang, Yuan, Loomis, James, Ghasemi, Hadi, Lee, Seok Woo, Wang, Yi Jenny, Cui, Yi, & Chen, Gang. Membrane-Free Battery for Harvesting Low-Grade Thermal Energy. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/nl5032106
Yang, Yuan, Loomis, James, Ghasemi, Hadi, Lee, Seok Woo, Wang, Yi Jenny, Cui, Yi, and Chen, Gang. Mon .
"Membrane-Free Battery for Harvesting Low-Grade Thermal Energy". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/nl5032106. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1385292.
@article{osti_1385292,
title = {Membrane-Free Battery for Harvesting Low-Grade Thermal Energy},
author = {Yang, Yuan and Loomis, James and Ghasemi, Hadi and Lee, Seok Woo and Wang, Yi Jenny and Cui, Yi and Chen, Gang},
abstractNote = {Efficient and low-cost systems are desired to harvest the tremendous amount of energy stored in low-grade heat sources (<100 °C). An attractive approach is the thermally regenerative electrochemical cycle (TREC), which uses the dependence of electrode potential on temperature to construct a thermodynamic cycle for direct heat-to-electricity conversion. By varying the temperature, an electrochemical cell is charged at a lower voltage than discharged; thus, thermal energy is converted to electricity. Recently, a Prussian blue analog-based system with high efficiency has been demonstrated. However, the use of an ion-selective membrane in this system raises concerns about the overall cost, which is crucial for waste heat harvesting. We report on a new membrane-free battery with a nickel hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF) cathode and a silver/silver chloride anode. The system has a temperature coefficient of -0.74 mV K–1. When the battery is discharged at 15 °C and recharged at 55 °C, thermal-to-electricity conversion efficiencies of 2.6% and 3.5% are achieved with assumed heat recuperation of 50% and 70%, respctively. This work opens new opportunities for using membrane-free electrochemical systems to harvest waste heat.},
doi = {10.1021/nl5032106},
journal = {Nano Letters},
number = 11,
volume = 14,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Oct 13 00:00:00 EDT 2014},
month = {Mon Oct 13 00:00:00 EDT 2014}
}
Web of Science
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