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量增加，推动了新技术的发展。对可用于在绿色建筑应用中为这种电子设备供电的非消耗性电能源的需求日益增加。提供非消耗性能源使得能够使用现代电子设备，从而提高建筑物的能源效率。这也将消除处理有毒电池及其危险废物的需要。其他室内收集技术也是可用的，并广泛用于实现低功耗系统。本文讨论的技术提供的功率密度是最接近的竞争性室内收获技术的功率密度的十倍。了解技术的潜在商业应用、其潜在市场规模和竞争格局，对于确立可行的商业化道路是必要的。在该项目中，该团队将专注于开发一种产品和商业化计划，以实现在现代建筑中使用节能的暖通空调（HVAC）设备，提高建筑物的全球能源效率。该技术还可用于收集少量能量，可用于汽车，国防，生物医学和其他需要小型电子设备非消耗能源的领域。拟议工作的目标首先是进行市场研究，确定竞争格局，并考虑建立战略伙伴关系，其次是开发一个试点项目的原型。第一部分将通过与行业专家进行大量全面访谈来实现。我们将对访谈的反馈进行评估，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，将建立能量采集器的功率要求。了解动力需求将有助于通过建造和测试一个可用于试点项目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.