On 11-12-26 11:12 PM, Alberto De Souza wrote:
I'm a new member of the list, but I'm reading the posts since January.
I'm addicted...
If we have a large COP (10-100), I believe we can use thin film
thermogenerators (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectricity) such
as these http://www.micropelt.com/down/datasheet_mpg_d651_d751.pdf to
make a self sustain wet cell... We can put thousands of those around a
wet cell. They produce useful power with as little as 10 degrees
Celsius (see datasheet).
With a 10 degree rise, operating at room temperature, you'd need a COP
of around 30 to make the cell self sustain, if you were using an ideal
thermoelectric generator and you were capturing all the generated heat.
Using a real world generator and real world heat transfer mechanisms,
the COP would need to be substantially higher than that.
10 degrees over room temperature gives you about 3.5% conversion
efficiency, in the best possible "ideal" case.
If you run the cell hotter and continue to get a 10 degree temp boost
out of it, the 10 degree rise will be smaller (proportionately
speaking), and you get even worse efficiency as a result.
Unfortunately real-world PdD cells don't operate with a COP anywhere
near 30. So, no, you can't do what you're proposing.