Physicists turn 'waste' heat into electricity

Heat is wasted in plenty, researchers in the University of Utah want to utilize the wasted heat. They have developed a way to turn heat into sound and then subsequently to electricity and thus, offering a new way of recycling wasted heat energy.

Symko’s recycling devices are cylinder shaped resonators that fits in the palm of one’s hand. Each cylinder contains material with a large surface area, such as metal or plastic plates, fiber glass material, cotton or steel wool place between hot and cold exchangers.

When heat is applied to one end of the chamber, the heat builds inside the cylinder and after they reach a particular temperature, the hot moving air produces sound at a single frequency. Symko says it is like air blown into a flute.

The heat which is random and chaotic is then converted into a sound with one single frequency. This sound is then applied to piezoelectric device (“piezo” means pressure or squeezing). The pressure created in the piezoelectric device is converted into a voltage.

Symko says it is similar to when you hit your "funnybone" or the nerve on outside of your elbow, thereby generating that weird, painful pinch, which is actually an electrical nerve impulse.

Symko plans to test this model at a military radar facility and the University of Utah’s hot water generating plant. The U.S. Army has funded this study in the hope they can use this technology to create a portable source of energy.

Symko believes these devices could be used within two years as an alternative to solar photovoltaic cells. They could also provide a new way to cool laptops and other computers and to generate electricity from the heat released by nuclear power plant cooling towers.

Its application is endless if proven that they could generate significant amount of electrical energy. For further study on the topic, click here.