Electromagnetic Energy Harvesting Device

Electromagnetic Energy Harvesting Device

Energy harvesting or EH (also known as power harvesting or energy scavenging or ambient power) is the process by which energy is derived from external sources (e.g., solar power, thermal energy, wind energy, salinity gradients, and kinetic energy, also known as ambient energy), captured, and stored for small, wireless autonomous devices, like those used in wearable electronics and wireless sensor networks. Energy harvesters provide a very small amount of power for low-energy electronics. While the input fuel to some large-scale generation costs resources (oil, coal, etc.), the energy source for energy harvesters is present as ambient background. For example, temperature gradients exist from the operation of a combustion engine and in urban areas; there is a large amount of electromagnetic energy in the environment because of radio and television broadcasting [Wikipedia].  

EH also has the potential to replace batteries for small, low power electronic devices. This has several benefits:

·         Maintenance free – no need to replace batteries

·         Environmentally friendly – disposal of batteries is tightly regulated because they contain chemicals and metals that are harmful to the environment and hazardous to human health

·         Opens up new applications – such as deploying EH sensors to monitor remote or underwater locations

Successfully developing EH technology requires expertise from all aspects of physics, including:

·         Energy capture

·         Energy storage

·         Metrology

·         Material science

·         Systems engineering

Energy is lost in every industrial process and everyday technology that you can think of, e.g.:

·         Power stations

·         Computers and microwaves (in fact all our electronic gadgets)

Different types of waste energy can be captured using different EH materials. The most promising micro scale EH technologies in development include:

·         Vibration, movement and sound

·         Heat

·         Microwave/RF waves, harmonic signal produced by an electrical power system and …

Electromagnetic Energy Harvester (EEH)

In this project, the focus is on the significant energy collection through the waves and electrical signals in the environment, without the need for an input source. In other words, if we define efficiency as the ratio of output power to input power, this device has infinite efficiency since input power is zero. Also, it can be used as a sensor.

The most important advantages of EEH

·         No need for input power

·         Independent of ground connection

·         Small size

·         Generating significant output power

·         Portable power source

More information and prototype video of EEH will be posted on the site soon.