Advanced Hybrid Thermoelectric-Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Energy Conversion for High Efficiency Portable Power

The proposal would provide the design and basic product development work to augment the power generation efficiency of fuel cells developed by Acumentrics Corp. by converting waste heat into electricity by highly efficient thermoelectric (TE) power generation. Three paths will be explored in Phase I to add a TE generator to the SOFC. The first will explore the use of a material that is used in commercial products and currently achieves a 6-9% conversion efficiency. The second will utilize a novel material developed jointly by researchers that have demonstrated a 16-20% conversion efficiency with this material in prototype arrays. The third approach will be to amplify the efficiency of the selected TE material by using a novel glass-encased nanowire technique developed by a third company that harnesses quantum confinement to increase efficiency. This technique holds promise both for increasing TEG conversion efficiency and for dramatically reducing the complexity and cost of creating an actual commercial device. The goal of Phase I will be to establish the most realistic pathway to a small SOFC-TE generator that can achieve over 45% combined efficiency when running on light hydrocarbon fuels such as propane.