Waste heat recovery
The Thermagy principle
Thermagy heat panels use Thermo Electric Generation (TEG) technology. TEG is known as an emerging technology that:
- Converts heat into electricity using the Seebeck effect,
- Controls heat flows using the Peltier effect.
TEG now applicable at large scale and for high temperatures
Since quite some time, TEG technology has been considered attractive due to its static and simple application. However, until now TEG is only applied in niches markets and in lower temperature applications, due to high cost and limited research & development progress. With its new and patented production method, RGS Development has created a simple and cost effective concept, suitable for mass manufacturing and comparable to a solar panel with regard to simplicity of installation. The heat panel will be the first configuration of Thermagy products aiming to access a thus far untapped and huge potential of industrial high temperature waste heat.
Energy generation
A typical panel generates 1.5kW-2.5kW/m2 when exposed to a heat source of 700-1200°C – which is over 50 times more condensed compared to solar. On top of electricity generation, this water-cooled configuration supplies hot water, potentially to be upgraded to valuable process heat or steam.
Heat flow control
Conversely, when a voltage is applied to it, Thermagy panels can create a temperature difference of several degrees in a radiation heat flow, for precision cooling or even additional heating. That means that we can use this so-called Peltier effect to fine-tune the temperature of heat radiation flows in several stages of the production process. This might lead to improved product quality and additional energy saving.
Applications
Potential areas of application include recovery of industrial waste heat, recovery of transportation (automotive) exhaust gasses and electricity generation in remote (off grid) area’s energy harvesting for autonomous powering of sensors – related to the Internet of Things.
The uniqueness of Thermagy TEG’s
- Suitable for high temperature radiation waste heat
- Directly applicable at a heat source 700-1200°C
- A step change in TEG affordability due to patented production process
- Complementary to other heat recovery/control technologies
- Usable in open air environment
- Benign and stable silicon based materials
- Integrated water cooling
Ramping up to mass scale applications
- Easy to install
- Compact and modular design
- Robust architecture
- Static device, no moving parts
- No maintenance