This is cool...
Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:46 pm
New Chip Converts Heat into Electricity 01:27 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: General News (0 comments)
A startup called Eneco announced last week that it has developed a chip that will convert excess cpu heat into usable electricity:
Startup company Eneco last week presented to investors its supposedly revolutionary power chip that will convert heat directly into electricity, or conversely will cool to -200 degrees Celsius when a current is applied (like a Peltier cooler).
"This chip compares with the invention of the transistor, or the TV, or the first aircraft," said Dr. Lew Brown, president and CEO of Eneco. "It is a genuinely disruptive technology."
The chip works on the basis of thermionic emissions, which is caused by thermal vibration energy overcoming the electrostatic forces holding electrons to the surface. The free electrons then pass through a vacuum to a cold metal surface, which creates an electrical charge that can then be reused. As the temperature rises, this effect increases dramatically.
A startup called Eneco announced last week that it has developed a chip that will convert excess cpu heat into usable electricity:
Startup company Eneco last week presented to investors its supposedly revolutionary power chip that will convert heat directly into electricity, or conversely will cool to -200 degrees Celsius when a current is applied (like a Peltier cooler).
"This chip compares with the invention of the transistor, or the TV, or the first aircraft," said Dr. Lew Brown, president and CEO of Eneco. "It is a genuinely disruptive technology."
The chip works on the basis of thermionic emissions, which is caused by thermal vibration energy overcoming the electrostatic forces holding electrons to the surface. The free electrons then pass through a vacuum to a cold metal surface, which creates an electrical charge that can then be reused. As the temperature rises, this effect increases dramatically.