Magnesium and Manganese Silicides For Efficient And Low Cost Thermo-Electric Power Generation

There is a current need for technology that can convert waste heat to electric power in an effort to achieve significant improvements in fuel efficiency and lessen our dependence on environmentally hazardous, foreign produced fuels. Thermoelectric Power Generation (TEPG) is the most efficient and commercially deployable technology for this need. However, commercial integration of TEPG with automobiles has been impeded due to the lack of suitable materials and issues with the device design and fabrication. Development of nano- composites of Mg2Si and MnSi using a novel fabrication technique will be investigated. The advantages of these materials are their abundance in the earths crust and their non-toxicity. Proprietary techniques for obtaining extremely high purity Mg and Mn, which is crucial, in the production of high efficiency TE material has been developed, by Brimrose. Device issues and demonstration of the feasibility of producing TEPG devices that can provide $1/W of power will be the major focus of this proposed work. Many applications of TE devices utilize their cooling aspects, such as small and mobile refrigerators, cooled car seats, temperature regulators of lasers, and for medical and scientific instruments. And then there are the numerous applications that deal with waste heat recovery such as in the automobile industry and the manufacturing industry.