Near-Room-Temperature Waste Heat Recovery Through Radiative Cooling for Both Daytime and Nighttime Power Generation
2023/9/15
With the rapid growth in global energy consumption, waste heat recovery is becoming an important issue. Nevertheless, recovering near-room-temperature waste heat remains challenging because the slight temperature difference with the surroundings leads to extremely low thermoelectric power generation. This study combined a daytime radiative cooling (DRC) technology with a thermoelectric generator (TEG) to efficiently recover near-room-temperature waste heat. We investigated the effects of the thermal radiation and thermal conduction properties of the DRC materials on near-room-temperature waste heat recovery (WHR). We designed a hierarchical micro-nano h-BN/ZnO composite (MNHZC) with outstanding daytime radiative cooling ability and moderate thermal conductivity. With this hierarchical h-BN/ZnO composite, we achieved record-high levels of thermoelectric power generation of 225.3 and 412.3 mW m–2 during the daytime and nighttime, respectively, with enhancements in thermoelectric power of 1030 and 190 %. The attractive power generation ability of the MNHZC/TEG system suggests its great potential in low-grade waste heat recovery and environmental energy harvesting by consistently generating power in both the daytime and nighttime.
Showcasing research from Professor Hsuen-Li Chen’s laboratory, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
A newly designed daytime radiative cooling (DRC) strategy adopts hierarchical micro-nano h-BN/ZnO composite, significantly enhances near-room-temperature waste heat recovery, and generates power in both the daytime and nighttime.
This study has been published and highlighted on the Back Cover of Journal of Materials Chemistry A. The team would like to acknowledge and appreciate the financial support from the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), the Higher Education Sprout Program at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and the Center of Atomic Initiative for New Materials National Taiwan University, Taiwan.
Contact: Prof. Hsuen-Li Chen
hsuenlichen@ntu.edu.tw
More information:
S. W. Chang, Y. J. Chen, Dehui Wan, H. L. Chen*, “Near-Room-Temperature Waste Heat Recovery Through Radiative Cooling for Both Daytime and Nighttime Power Generation,” Journal of Materials Chemistry A, (2023), 11, 15183-15195 (highlighted on the Journal Back Cover).
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/ta/d3ta01436c