I-Corps: Fluidic Energy Harvesters for Green Building Applications

手机、传感器、执行器和其他消费产品等小型电子设备的使用增加，推动了为它们提供动力的新技术的发展。在绿色建筑应用中，对可用于为这些电子设备供电的非耗尽电力能源的需求不断增加。提供不会耗尽的能源使现代电子设备的使用成为可能，从而提高了建筑物的能效。这也将消除处置有毒电池及其危险废物的需要。其他室内收割技术也是可用的，并被广泛用于实现低功率系统。这里讨论的技术提供的功率密度是最接近的竞争室内收获技术的十倍。对该技术的潜在商业应用、其潜在市场规模和竞争格局的了解对于建立一条可行的商业化道路是必要的。在这个项目中，该团队将专注于开发一种产品和一项商业化计划，使节能的供暖、通风和空调(HVAC)设备能够在现代建筑中使用，从而提高建筑的全球能效。这项技术还可以用来采集少量能源，这些能源可以实施在汽车、国防、生物医学等需要小型电子设备非枯竭能源的领域。拟议工作的目标是首先进行市场研究，确定竞争格局，并考虑形成战略合作伙伴关系，其次开发一个准备好试点计划的原型。第一部分将通过对行业专家进行大量全面的访谈来实现。将对面谈的反馈进行评估，以估计市场规模并确定主要合作伙伴和竞争对手。此外，根据行业专业人士的反馈，将确定能源收割机的功率要求。对电力需求的了解将允许通过构建和测试为试点计划做好准备的原型来完成第二个目标。

An increase in the usage of small electronic devices like cell-phones, sensors, actuators and other consumer products drives the development of new technologies to power them. There is an increasing demand for a non-depleting electrical energy source that can be used to power such electronic devices in Green Building application. Providing a non-depleting energy source enables the usage of modern electronic devices that increase the energy efficiency of the building. This will also eliminate the need for disposal of toxic batteries and their hazardous waste. Other indoor harvesting technologies are available and are widely used to enable low power systems. Technology discussed herein provides the power density ten times that of the nearest competing indoor harvesting technology. The knowledge for the potential commercial application for the technology, its potential market size and the competitive landscape is necessary to establish a feasible path to commercialization. In this project the team will focus on developing a product and a commercialization plan that will enable the usage of energy efficient Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) devices in modern buildings, increasing the global energy efficiency of the buildings. This technology can also be used to harvest small amounts of energy that can be implemented in automotive, defense, biomedical and other fields that require non-depleting energy source for small electronic devices. The objectives of the proposed work are first to carry out market research, identify the competitive landscape and consider the formation of strategic partnerships and second to develop a pilot-program ready prototype. The first part will be achieved by conducting a large number of comprehensive interviews with industry specialists. The feedback from the interviews will be evaluated to estimate the market size and identify the key partners and competitors. Also, based on the feedback from the industry professionals a power requirement for the energy harvester will be established. The knowledge of the power requirement will allow for the completion of a second objective by constructing and testing a prototype ready for a pilot program.