Electricity Generating Process Reaches New Level
By Nick March 31, 2008
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College claim to have found a way to convert the electricity from heat much more efficient, a discovery that is supposed to make many of the today’s products use a smaller amount of energy for the same applications.
A new company has already received start-up funds from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to develop and commercialize the new method. The technology is based on the thermoelectric effect and scientists managed to use nanotechnology in exploiting the phenomenon. The company’s first product will be a material able to bear temperatures of over 400 degrees Fahrenheit, which will be used in industrial purposes. The primary target to benefit from this system will be the utility-scale power plants, that waste a great deal of heat.
The first thing that comes to our imagination from the objects we use that should be improved with this technology are cars, and yes, they surely will, but I guess we’ll have to wait until this company finishes the work on products that will drastically reduce the heat used in the industrial field.
It seems that when our vehicles will use this method, a car that now reaches a maximum of 110 miles per hour will be able to get to 4 or 500 miles instead (of course, if the wheels can take it). The method is called GMZ Energy and MIT professor of mechanical engineering Gang Chen, physicist Zhifeng Ren, and nanotechnology MIT researcher Mildred Dresselhaus worked at developing the system.
Topics: Energy |
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