TPVs for Waste Heat Recovery in Energy Resilient Manufacturing

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An efficient, practical and cost-effective means for directly converting heat into electricity is a very appealing concept. In principle, thermo-photovoltaic (TPV) cells could form the critical component of various systems for generating electricity from different types of heat sources including combustion processes, concentrated sunlight, waste process heat, and radio isotopes. This opens up a wide variety of possibilities for technology uptake and so TPV systems can be envisaged for use in applications ranging from small power supplies to replace batteries, to large scale co-generation of electricity. However, existing TPV cells are based on GaSb and are spectrally matched to heat sources at temperatures of ~1800 oC which limits their practical implementation and widespread uptake. In this project we shall build on existing UK based world class III-V semiconductor materials expertise to fabricate novel low bandgap TPV arrays on inexpensive GaAs substrates, capable of efficient electricity generation from thermal waste heat sources in the range 500-1000 0C commonly encountered in industrial processes. The project will demonstrate the next step towards fabrication of large area TPV arrays essential for the commercial viability of TPV heat recovery, and will enable their widespread implementation in a wide range of high energy consumption industries such as glass, steel and cement manufacture, oil/gas and energy generation.