Thermal Energy Harvesting Using Pyroelectric and Piezoelectric Effect

This paper presents a prototype of a thermal energy harvesting mechanism using both pyroelectric and piezoelectric effect. Thermal energy is one of abundant energy sources from various processes. Waste heat from a chip on a circuit board of the electronic device involves temperature differences from a few degrees C to over 100 °C. Therefore, 95 °C of a heat reservoir was used in this study. A repetitive time-dependant temperature variation is applied by a linear sliding table. The influence of heat conditions was investigated, by changing velocity and frequency of this linear sliding table. This energy harvesting mechanism employs Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT-5H), a bimetal beam and two neodymium magnets. The pyroelectric effect is caused by a time-dependent temperature variation, and the piezoelectric effect is caused by stress from deformation of the bimetal. A maximum power output 0.54 μ W is obtained at an optimal condition when the load resistance is 610 kΩ. (paper)