Low Grade Thermal Energy Harvesting

This book covers recent technologies developed for energy harvesting as well as energy storage applications. The book includes the fabrication of optoelectronic devices such as high-efficiency c-Si solar cells, carrier selective c-Si solar cells, quantum dot, and dye-sensitized solar cells, perovskite solar cells, Li-ion batteries, and supercapacitors. Aiming at beginners in the respective areas, the basic principles and mechanism of the optoelectronic phenomena behind every application are detailed in the book.

Autonomous sensors transmit data and power their electronics without using cables. They can be found in e.g. wireless sensor networks (WSNs) or remote acquisition systems. Although primary batteries provide a simple design for powering autonomous sensors, they present several limitations such as limited capacity and power density, and difficulty in predicting their condition and state of charge. An alternative is to extract energy from the ambient (energy harvesting). However, the reduced dimensions of most autonomous sensors lead to a low level of available power from the energy transducer. Thus, efficient methods and circuits to manage and gather the energy are a must.

This volume of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, Second Edition, describes technologies that actively convert solar radiation into useful heat in a temperature range from just above ambient up to more than 1,000°C. Applications cover a broad range of energy services such as space heating, cooking, domestic hot water supply, electrical power generation, and high temperature thermochemical processes.

This book investigates several non-resonant inductive harvester architectures in order to find the magnet coil arrangement that generates the largest power output. The book is useful as a step-by-step guide for readers unfamiliar with this form of energy harvesting, but who want to build their own system models to calculate the magnet motion and, from that, the power generation available for body-worn sensor systems. The detailed description of system model development will greatly facilitate experimental work with the aim of fabricating the design with the highest predicted power output.

Energy Harvesting Technologies provides a cohesive overview of the fundamentals and current developments in the field of energy harvesting. In a well-organized structure, this volume discusses basic principles for the design and fabrication of bulk and micro-scale energy harvesting systems based upon piezoelectric, electromagnetic and thermoelectric technologies. It provides excellent coverage of theory and design rules required for fabrication of efficient electronics and batteries. In addition, it covers the prominent applications for energy harvesting devices illustrating the state-of-the-art prototypes.

This book presents basic and advanced concepts for energy harvesting and energy efficiency, as well as related technologies, methods, and their applications. The book provides up-to-date knowledge and discusses the state-of-the-art equipment and methods used for energy harvesting and energy efficiency, combining theory and practical applications.

This book presents a complete framework for energy harvesting technologies based on graded elastic metamaterials. First, it provides a comprehensive survey of state-of-the-art research on metamaterials for energy harvesting and then explores the theoretical wave mechanics framework, going from inhomogeneous media to graded elastic metamaterials.

Sensors and Instrumentation, Aircraft/Aerospace and Energy Harvesting, Volume 7: Proceedings of the 38th IMAC, A Conference and Exposition on Structural Dynamics, 2020, the seventh volume of eight from the Conference brings together contributions to this important area of research and engineering. The collection presents early findings and case studies on fundamental and applied aspects of Shock & Vibration, Aircraft/Aerospace, Energy Harvesting & Dynamic Environments Testing including papers on: