http://pesn.com/Radio/Free_Energy_Now/shows/2007/01/06/9700221_Eneco_t

hermal_electric/

 

The company's Web Site is at: http://www.eneco.com/

 

 

 

 

ENECO Engineering Low-Heat-to-Electricity Conversion for Market

The science is done, what remains is to engineer for production, with applications such as waste-heat and concentrated solar energy harnessing.

 

Pure Energy Systems News

Copyright © 2007

 

 

 

SALT LAKE CITY, UT, USA -- On Saturday, Jan. 6, 2006, Sterling Allan conducted a live interview with Howard L. (Lew) Brown, CEO of ENECO, which has a thermal-electric technology for converting heat into electricity via a solid state wafer.

 

The technology is presently rated in the top ten of the New Energy Congress' (NEC) Top 100 Energy Technologies listing. (Ref.) Articles about it have been published in at least two peer-review journals. ENECO'S scientific testing apparatus has been certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado, whose independent (and non-published, since NIST cannot endorse commercial ventures) experimental conclusions report an efficiency of 38% of the Carnot limits. (Ref.)

 

Though the wafers begin generating electricity with a gradient (Ä T) as low as 1°C at room temperature, the range of feasible operation is at much larger temperature gradients and at temperatures of between around 200°C and 600°C. This points to a wide range of industrial waste-heat, geothermal, and commercial solar applications. Converting exhaust heat into electricity, to replace the alternator in a vehicle, is one application being vigorously pursued by ENECO

and an auto industry partner.

 

ENECO chips could replace the Stirling engine in Stirling Energy System's (SES) commercial solar arrays, producing electricity at approximately twice the efficiency but at half the cost. (Ref.) With their present set-up, SES is already competitive with conventional energy generation, so an alliance with ENECO would enable them to drop substantially lower than conventional energy

prices. Furthermore, the size would be much smaller, and the maintenance far less.

 

The typical method of converting sun energy to electricity is via a

photovoltaic (PV) module. They typically cost around $4 to $6.00 per

Watt, whereas the ENECO modules are projected to cost between $1 and

$4.00 per Watt. Furthermore, the ENECO module is more efficient at

converting sun energy to electricity. In harnessing heat, it draws

from a much wider spectrum of the electromagnetic spectrum emitted by

the sun -- not just from the visible wavelengths.

 

Inversely, if electricity is applied to the die, a refrigeration

effect is evoked, potentially going down as low as minus 200°C.

This, likewise, has a wide range of commercial applications, such as

cooling computer systems. ENECO envisions harnessing the heat

produced in a laptop motherboard, for example, and then using that

energy to cool the essential components.

 

"The science is done", says Brown. "Now we just need to engineer

this for production," which he anticipates could be ready within as

little as half a year. The company is also forging strategic

partnerships with a number of heavy-hitter industrial companies, such

as MagCorp in Utah, which see a lot of waste heat going unused. By

establishing partnerships with these companies, ENECO is able to get

closer to its financial requirements for completing the engineering

process.

 

ENECO is also under contract to go public in the London Exchange

within the next 12-16 months, to further raise funds for its ongoing

development and commercialization. They chose London over New York

for a number of strategically advantageous reasons, several of which

are enumerated in a recent Wall Street Journal article addressing the

shift from NY to London.

 

The company was established in 1991 by Hal Fox in connection with

cold fusion research being performed by Pons and Fleishmann at the

University of Utah. ENECO was tasked with finding a way of

efficiently harnessing low-level heat. In order to be feasible, cold

fusion needed a method of converting low-level heat into

electricity. Two of the earlier methods analyzed were quantum

tunneling and piezo effects (quartz), which ENECO ruled this out as

not being feasible.

 

This many years later, the number of investors still anxiously

waiting for a return on their investment is substantial, adding that

much more pressure on ENECO to get something into the marketplace.

Notwithstanding the long time it has taken, when given an option,

most investors opt for stock options rather then cashing out.

 

Thermalelectric technology has been around for about 150 years,

actually predating internal combustion engine technology. While

ENECO's variations draw from the thermionic and thermoelectric

predecessor work, it has developed substantial intellectual property

of its own. Ten U.S. patents have been issues, and nearly that many

have been issued in other jurisdictions. There are 48 patents filed

or pending, in all. Brown said ENECO would gladly license this IP to

interested parties. "One company can't possibly do all that can be

done with this technology," he said. The waste heat from fossil fuel

combustion alone represents a trillion-dollar market.

 

Charles T. Maxwell, Senior Energy Analyst from the Wall Street firm,

Weeden & Co, told Brown: "The cheapest barrel of oil is the one not

consumed".

 

Brown, a Ph.D. Plasma Physicist and successful businessman, joined

the ENECO team five years ago, and holds himself very confidently in

articulating both the technical and business aspects of the company.

The whiteboard in his office has the archetypal markings of a

brilliant mind busy communicating the ENECO vision to the myriad of

visitors that frequent the place from all over the world.

 

Allan visited Brown at the ENECO facility in Salt Lake City this past

Wednesday, and observed a prototype demonstration in which a die of

dimensions 1 mm x 1 mm x 0.5 mm was subjected to increasing heat, and

produced increasing voltage and amperage proportionately. When the

temperature in the lower electrode reached 300°C, while the upper

electrode was maintained at room temperature, the voltage was at

around 0.5 V, and the current was over 10 amps.

 

The "staff scientist" running the tests was Victor Sevastyanenko,

Ph.D., a Professor of Plasma Physics, who also demonstrated the

analysis software he created. He has been with ENECO for five and a

half years.

 

The test procedure entails taking a ½-inch diameter boule rod of

the alloy, cutting it thinly, polishing its surface, then applying a

the thin film barrier. These are then sliced into 1 mm squared sizes

called "dies". The sample is then measured, washed with alcohol, and

a coating of indium gallium solder is applied (for conductivity) to

the top and bottom of the die, as well as to the surface of both

electrodes where the die will be set.

 

As heat is applied to the base electrode (copper rod of about ½-inch

diameter), the voltage begins to appear. A load (flat copper sheet)

is intermittently removed then added to complete the circuit, and the

current is measured.

 

The temperature of the bottom electrode was determined by

extrapolation via two probes separated on the copper rod electrode.

The thermal conductivity of copper is well-known, so by measuring the

difference between the two positions in the rod, the temperature at

the end of the electrode can be calculated.

 

The high current production by the die requires the die to remain

small and not be scaled larger. Scaling will come in the form of

modularity, joining as many dies together as is needed for a given

application.

 

Also present with Allan this past Wednesday's visit were Tai Robinson

(ref.), also of NEC; David W. Allan (ref.), Sterling's father, who is

an atomic clock physicist whose professional career was spent at NIST

in Boulder; and David Yurth (ref.), who is involved with a different

solid state thermal-electric conversion technology.

 

Yurth thinks that ENECO faces some daunting engineering challenges in

making arrays of these very small dies that will hold up under the

rigors of industrial applications with higher heat and vibration.

Brown responded that the small size of the dies is an advantage

inasmuch as the smaller mass means less force being applied due to

the acceleration forces that the vibrations induce, per the equation

F=ma. He does acknowledge that ENECO faces some heavy engineering

issues, especially considering the variable expansion coefficients of

the various materials that will be used in the die and its casing.

Each material behaves differently at different temperatures, so

keeping things together and properly fastened and electrically

connected will not be an easy task. Their object of a 10-year

lifetime target, for industrial applications, adds to the challenge.

 

Another contention that Yurth put forward is that the ENECO paradigm

is like taking a sledge hammer to the materials to liberate the

electrons. The technology Yurth is involved with, which he says will

be announced in about three weeks, works with nature, using

homogeneous crystals that send the electrons to their periphery when

subjected to heat differential; and it is scalable. The feasible,

operational temperature of the technology Yurth is involved with

ranges from 0°C to 140°C. So the two technologies are more

supplemental than competitive in terms of their ranges of

applications. Yurth offered to assist ENECO identify solutions to

the challenges they face in engineering for production.

 

ENECO has been trying a wide range of alloys to try and find the

optimal combination for both thermal-electric conversion efficiency

as well as cost and environmental concerns. "Cadmium Tin Arsenide

works really well," said Brown, "but environmentally it has serious

problems." Cadmium is banned in Europe. Presently they are focusing

on an alloy of Lead, Tin, and Telluride, and are in process of

optimizing it.

 

A fairly significant gradient in temperature is needed for efficient

operation. For example, if one electrode was room temperature (17°

C), the other electrode would need to be 113°C to achieve a 10%

efficiency (Carnot).

 

ENECO has five permanent employees, and works closely with the

University of Utah and other facilities for outsourcing certain tasks

in the development process. An early and still active player on the

ENECO team is Peter Hagelstein of MIT, who is world renowned for his

ongoing work in the field of cold fusion.

 

1. # #

 

 

REFERENCES:

 

NIST Report: Measurement of High Efficiency in Hg0.86Cd0.14Te

Thermionic Converters; Ray Radebaugh, and Mike Lewis; Physical and

Chemical Properties Division; National Institute of Standards and

Technology; Boulder, Colorado 80305; Prepared for ENECO, University

of Utah Research Park, 391-B Chipeta Way, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108;

December 7, 2001. (18 pp.)

 

investigate the proper measurement procedures for determining the

efficiency of solid-state thermionic energy converters...."

 

 

 

conversion of thermal to electrical power in MCT samples are

possible, but that rapid heating is required to obtain the results

before the samples deteriorate at high temperatures in vacuum. The

high efficiency of 38% of Carnot determined for one of the MCT

samples with rapid heating is comparable to the high values found by

ENECO previously with layered samples under steady state conditions

when heated in an argon atmosphere. We should emphasize that the

high efficiencies we have found are dependent on the theoretical

correction to the zero-current heat flow."

 

Energy Conversion Using Diode-Like Structures; Yan Kucherov, Peter

Hagelstein; Thermoelectrics Handbook, chapter 13; Edited by D.M.

Rowe, Ph.D., D.Sc.; CRC; 2006.

 

 

 

described. It consists of a wafer of thermoelectric material and

incorporates a carrier energy sorting potential barrier on the

emitter side and an ohmic return current blocking barrier on the

collector side. This device can be used for heat to electricity

conversion or for cooling."

 

 

Importance of barrier layers in thermal diodes for energy conversion;

Yan Kucherov, Peter Hagelstein (MIT), Victor Sevastyanenko and Harold

L. Brown, Sivaraman Guruswamy, Wayne Wingert; Journal of Applied

Physics; Vol. 97, No. 9; 1 May 2005; pp. 094902 1-8. (This paper

reflects the present understanding of the technology by ENECO.)

 

 

 

have been reported previously with thermal diode structures in which

a thin n-type emitter layer is formed on the hot side of a thick near-

intrinsic thermoelectric semiconductor. The figure of merit derived

from direct measurements of electrical parameters and heat flow is

increased by as much as a factor of eight. The question of what

physical mechanisms are involved has been of interest since the

initial observations of the effect. We have conjectured that the

short-circuit current injection in these experiments is due to a

second-order thermionic injection mechanism. More recently, we

proposed that the open-circuit voltage comes about due to the

presence of a p-type blocking layer between the emitter and the near-

intrinsic bulk region. The experiments reported here show that a p-

type blocking layer is required for the effect, and the dependence of

conversion efficiency on the blocking layer concentration and width

is studied. The results are generally consistent with calculations

done so far based on nonlocal generalized Onsager-type transport

model."

 

Enhanced figure of merit in thermal to electrical energy conversion

using diode structures; Peter L. Hagelstein, Y. Kucherov; Applied

Physics Letters; Vol. 81, No. 3; 15 July 2002; pp. 559-561.

 

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