Continuous electrochemical heat engines

Poletayev, Andrey D.; McKay, Ian S.; Chueh, William C.; Majumdar, Arun

doi:10.1039/c8ee01137k

Title: Continuous electrochemical heat engines

Abstract

Given the large magnitude of energy in waste heat, its efficient conversion to electrical power offers a significant opportunity to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, it has been difficult to optimize the performance of new direct energy conversion approaches because of the coupling between entropy change and thermal and electrical transport in continuously operating devices. With electrochemical cells driving flowing electrolytes in symmetric redox reactions at different temperatures, we demonstrate two continuous electrochemical heat engines that operate at 10–50 °C and at 500–900 °C, respectively. Simulations of kilowatt-scale systems using electrochemical cells stacked in series suggest efficiencies over 30% of the Carnot limit and areal power densities competitive with solid-state thermoelectrics at maximum power. Although entropy change, thermal transport and electrical transport are inherently coupled in solid-state thermoelectrics, they can be somewhat circumvented in electrochemical systems, thus offering new opportunities to engineer efficient energy conversion systems.

Authors:

Poletayev, Andrey D. ^[1]; McKay, Ian S. ^[2];

^[3];

^[4]

Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford, CA (United States)
Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)

Publication Date:: 2018-07-16

Research Org.:: SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE

OSTI Identifier:: 1490884

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1461903

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-76SF00515; DGE-1147470

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Energy & Environmental Science

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 11; Journal Issue: 10; Journal ID: ISSN 1754-5692

Publisher:: Royal Society of Chemistry

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION

Citation Formats


                    Poletayev, Andrey D., McKay, Ian S., Chueh, William C., and Majumdar, Arun. Continuous electrochemical heat engines.  United States: N. p., 2018. 
        Web.  doi:10.1039/c8ee01137k.

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                    Poletayev, Andrey D., McKay, Ian S., Chueh, William C., & Majumdar, Arun. Continuous electrochemical heat engines.  United States.  doi:https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ee01137k

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                    Poletayev, Andrey D., McKay, Ian S., Chueh, William C., and Majumdar, Arun. Mon .  
        "Continuous electrochemical heat engines".  United States.  doi:https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ee01137k.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1490884.

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@article{osti_1490884,

  title        = {Continuous electrochemical heat engines},

  author       = {Poletayev, Andrey D. and McKay, Ian S. and Chueh, William C. and Majumdar, Arun},

  abstractNote = {Given the large magnitude of energy in waste heat, its efficient conversion to electrical power offers a significant opportunity to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, it has been difficult to optimize the performance of new direct energy conversion approaches because of the coupling between entropy change and thermal and electrical transport in continuously operating devices. With electrochemical cells driving flowing electrolytes in symmetric redox reactions at different temperatures, we demonstrate two continuous electrochemical heat engines that operate at 10–50 °C and at 500–900 °C, respectively. Simulations of kilowatt-scale systems using electrochemical cells stacked in series suggest efficiencies over 30% of the Carnot limit and areal power densities competitive with solid-state thermoelectrics at maximum power. Although entropy change, thermal transport and electrical transport are inherently coupled in solid-state thermoelectrics, they can be somewhat circumvented in electrochemical systems, thus offering new opportunities to engineer efficient energy conversion systems.},

  doi          = {10.1039/c8ee01137k},

  journal      = {Energy & Environmental Science},

  number       = 10,

  volume       = 11,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2018},

  month        = {7}

}

Copy to clipboard

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ee01137k

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Direct thermal charging cell for converting low-grade heat to electricity
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Similar Records

Title: Continuous electrochemical heat engines

Abstract

Citation Formats

Thermal pulse energy harvesting journal, August 2013

High-Temperature Materials journal, January 1960

Solution Characterization of the Iron(II) Bis(1,4,7-Triazacyclononane) Spin-Equilibrium Reaction journal, September 2001

Nanostructured Thermoelectrics: Big Efficiency Gains from Small Features journal, July 2010

Ionic thermoelectric supercapacitors journal, January 2016

Thermogalvanic conversion of heat to electricity journal, January 1986

Membrane-Free Battery for Harvesting Low-Grade Thermal Energy journal, October 2014

Complex thermoelectric materials journal, February 2008

Energy harvesting, reuse and upgrade to reduce primary energy usage in the USA journal, October 2011

An electrochemical system for efficiently harvesting low-grade heat energy journal, May 2014

Li-Ion Cell Operation at Low Temperatures journal, January 2013

New Directions for Low-Dimensional Thermoelectric Materials journal, April 2007

Modeling of flowable slurry electrodes with combined faradaic and nonfaradaic currents journal, April 2016

Cooling, Heating, Generating Power, and Recovering Waste Heat with Thermoelectric Systems journal, September 2008

A Review of Power Generation in Aqueous Thermogalvanic Cells journal, January 1995

Entropic driving-force effects upon preexponential factors for intramolecular electron transfer: implications for the assessment of nonadiabaticity journal, January 1984

A thermoelectric device based on beta-alumina solid electrolyte journal, August 1974

Theoretical assessment of an oxygen heat engine: The effect of mass transport limitation journal, January 1991

Semi-Solid Lithium Rechargeable Flow Battery journal, May 2011

Relationship between thermoelectric figure of merit and energy conversion efficiency journal, June 2015

Effects of operating temperature on the performance of vanadium redox flow batteries journal, October 2015

Searching for a Better Thermal Battery journal, March 2012

Harvesting Waste Thermal Energy Using a Carbon-Nanotube-Based Thermo-Electrochemical Cell journal, March 2010

The Electrochemical Flow Capacitor: A New Concept for Rapid Energy Storage and Recovery journal, May 2012

Thermoelectric Energy Conversion with Solid Electrolytes journal, September 1983

Membrane-less hydrogen bromine flow battery journal, August 2013

Towards ionic liquid-based thermoelectrochemical cells for the harvesting of thermal energy journal, December 2013

Solvent, ligand, and ionic charge effects on reaction entropies for simple transition-metal redox couples journal, October 1984

Porous-electrode theory with battery applications journal, January 1975

An electrochemical heat engine for direct solar energy conversion journal, January 1979

Intramolecular and Environmental Contributions to Electrode Half-Reaction Entropies of M(tacn) 2 3+/2+ (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Ru; tacn = 1,4,7-Triazacyclononane) Redox Couples journal, January 1999

Boundary Layer Analysis of Membraneless Electrochemical Cells journal, January 2013

Thermodynamics of Thermoelectric Phenomena and Applications journal, August 2011

MATERIALS SCIENCE: Enhanced: Thermoelectricity in Semiconductor Nanostructures journal, February 2004

A metal-free organic–inorganic aqueous flow battery journal, January 2014

Direct thermal charging cell for converting low-grade heat to electricity journal, September 2019

Electrochemical Redox Refrigeration journal, September 2019

Thermal pulse energy harvesting
journal, August 2013

High-Temperature Materials
journal, January 1960

Solution Characterization of the Iron(II) Bis(1,4,7-Triazacyclononane) Spin-Equilibrium Reaction
journal, September 2001

Nanostructured Thermoelectrics: Big Efficiency Gains from Small Features
journal, July 2010

Ionic thermoelectric supercapacitors
journal, January 2016

Thermogalvanic conversion of heat to electricity
journal, January 1986

Membrane-Free Battery for Harvesting Low-Grade Thermal Energy
journal, October 2014

Complex thermoelectric materials
journal, February 2008

Energy harvesting, reuse and upgrade to reduce primary energy usage in the USA
journal, October 2011

An electrochemical system for efficiently harvesting low-grade heat energy
journal, May 2014

Li-Ion Cell Operation at Low Temperatures
journal, January 2013

New Directions for Low-Dimensional Thermoelectric Materials
journal, April 2007

Modeling of flowable slurry electrodes with combined faradaic and nonfaradaic currents
journal, April 2016

Cooling, Heating, Generating Power, and Recovering Waste Heat with Thermoelectric Systems
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A Review of Power Generation in Aqueous Thermogalvanic Cells
journal, January 1995

Entropic driving-force effects upon preexponential factors for intramolecular electron transfer: implications for the assessment of nonadiabaticity
journal, January 1984

A thermoelectric device based on beta-alumina solid electrolyte
journal, August 1974

Theoretical assessment of an oxygen heat engine: The effect of mass transport limitation
journal, January 1991

Semi-Solid Lithium Rechargeable Flow Battery
journal, May 2011

Relationship between thermoelectric figure of merit and energy conversion efficiency
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Effects of operating temperature on the performance of vanadium redox flow batteries
journal, October 2015

Searching for a Better Thermal Battery
journal, March 2012

Harvesting Waste Thermal Energy Using a Carbon-Nanotube-Based Thermo-Electrochemical Cell
journal, March 2010

The Electrochemical Flow Capacitor: A New Concept for Rapid Energy Storage and Recovery
journal, May 2012

Thermoelectric Energy Conversion with Solid Electrolytes
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Membrane-less hydrogen bromine flow battery
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Towards ionic liquid-based thermoelectrochemical cells for the harvesting of thermal energy
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Solvent, ligand, and ionic charge effects on reaction entropies for simple transition-metal redox couples
journal, October 1984

Porous-electrode theory with battery applications
journal, January 1975

An electrochemical heat engine for direct solar energy conversion
journal, January 1979

Intramolecular and Environmental Contributions to Electrode Half-Reaction Entropies of M(tacn) ₂ ^3+/2+ (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Ru; tacn = 1,4,7-Triazacyclononane) Redox Couples
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Direct thermal charging cell for converting low-grade heat to electricity
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