Thermal Electric Power Generation

Researchers have developed a high efficiency thermoelectric generator.

Australia has a company now developing a battery that can be placed into any Coal Fired power station and replace the Boiler. So no Coal needed and Renewable energy would charge the battery. It just needs Governments/big corporations to start pumping money into full scale production of these and many other solutions. Instead of 20 years in Afghanistan and Iraq we poured money into Lithium Batteries (Av bailable 1990,s) Electric Cars (Available since 1880’s). Wind ? 400 years, Solar Decades old , Vanadium Redox Batteries late 1980’s All we have got is misinformation and stalling just like Cancer causing Tobacco.

1 Like

Interesting. Do you have a link, brand or business details?

Carbon fuel based generation - coal or gas is not very efficient.

I am sure that I have previously posted the link.

I remember that link.
If that is what was being referred to in the recent post it was not mentioned. It’s not a battery. It’s clever by design. It’s worth asking if it’s efficient compared to the alternatives such as chemical battery options and pumped storage, or cost effective after the losses are considered?

Perhaps the meaning of battery is changing? If a branch beaks off a tree and falls hitting one in the head, the tree has released the stored potential energy of the growing tree. Hence one has been hit on the head by a battery? Just needs some salt added for it to be a charge for a salt and battery. :joy::roll_eyes:

1 Like

http://e2s-power.com

New energy storage tech breathing life and jobs back into disused coal power plants - YouTube A useful explanation

Some “invention”. Storing energy from solar as heat and then using that heat to boil some fluid to drive generators has been in commercial operation for decades.
It is called solar thermal power.
I just love the final sentence in this hoplessely advertorial article.
This technology will save the jobs of coal workers at power stations. How is that since these heat blocks replace coal as a source of heat?

Also, there is no attempt to explain how these blocks are recharged with heat energy.

Great video.

image

Perhaps you should have looked at the video posted by @r333r above before posting.

I did @Fred123. A solution looking for a problem.

It is in that it more correctly describes the proposal a thermal energy storage system.

We are moving away from the core topic, and looking at alternate forms of energy storage. In this instance thermal energy storage.

It has potential to store thermal energy for use in industrial and processing applications (80-85% overall/trip efficiency).

It has a possible application for electrical generation. Low overall efficiency (up to 40% trip efficiency) retrofitted to upgrade existing coal fired generation.

E2S Power AG is developing the application/products and Aussie company MGA are behind the technology.

For the technically minded the ABC has a link to a useful summary.

https://www.abc.net.au/cm/lb/12655248/data/mga-thermal---technical-details-of-thermal-blocks-data.pdf

The relatively low overall efficiency for a steam turbine - Rankine cycle is cause for concern. E2S Power AG are working towards a 50MWh capacity pilot storage system for 2022. Europe not Australia. Like any technology still in development we will have to wait and see how that turns out.

1 Like

Could I softly remind all those dazzled by replacements for coal generators, or who think it ridiculous, that all such views have nothing to do with fossil fuel subsidies.

The Fossil Fuels topic seems to have veered into a manner of thermal electric generation so I am moving the relevant posts accordingly. Please post if I got it wrong re the topical nature.

1 Like

I have no idea what a “thermoelectric” device has to do with a heat source to replace coal fired boilers to be used in existing power plants.
I have no idea why this thread even exists, apart from the initial post.
The only useful application for this type of power generation I have ever heard of is in space probes where the heat source is radioactive decay materials.

Any solutions that offer an Alternative to Fossil Fuels should be welcome

2 Likes

Nor are many batteries, if we look to the original pre-electricity sense of the term - “a number of similar articles, items, or devices arranged, connected, or used together”. The original ‘energy storage battery’ that is now commonplace was indeed a number of alternating layers of metal soaked in salt water.

Those blocks seem to need to be ‘charged’ via an external source and then presumably hold that ‘charge’ for a period of time before being ‘recharged’. It is unclear to me why these should be used in place of existing power storage technologies, and I must have missed the bit that said how long they hold that ‘charge’ (i.e. heat differential) before needing to be ‘recharged’.

1 Like

It’s a novel way of describing thermal energy. It’s not accepted usage for science. But looking to mass marketing of many consumer products, a lack of real science rarely constrains product promotion.

Be sure to fully charge your battery on the stove before placing the sausages upon it. Recharge frequently during cooking. :grin::grin::grin::grin:

Hopefully science continues to distinguish between stored chemical energy able to be released as an electrical current (as for a classic battery) chemistry and thermal energy evident by temperature and state (hot or hotter, solid-liquid-gas-
) physics.

1 Like

There are a great many ‘potential solutions’.

Science has been researching different ways to store and harness thermal (heat) energy for decades. Some systems rely on capturing thermal energy in molten salts, and storing the salts underground or in large insulated tanks.

Low energy, high efficiency eco homes look to thermal mass to collect and store thermal energy. Building in thermal mass also aids in stabilising internal household temperatures.

In adapting thermal energy storage to replace fossil fuel boilers, each prospective solution needs to progress through a number of trials, pilot plants

Deservedly the development of stored thermal energy systems now has it’s own topic.

This previous post might help.

The core technology is not thermoelectric, as in a peltier device. Refer to a previous post for concise details,

So how is this topic going to go?

Is it about producing electricity through heat directly, as in the post that started this topic?

Or using heat as a stored form of energy to be used as an alternative to burning fuels to produce heat in the traditional manner?

Seems the discussion has become the later, and that is fine with me, as it is more fitting with the title of the topic.