Black technology starts from the steel suit

Chapter 156 20% of the established goal

The Zt value, also known as the dimensionless figure of merit coefficient, is a coefficient used to quantify and measure the thermoelectric quality of materials. It can be understood that the higher the index, the higher the efficiency of thermoelectric materials, and more heat energy can be converted into electrical energy.

The thermoelectric effect refers to the mutual conversion between thermal energy and electrical energy.The thermoelectric effect includes the Seebeck effect, the Peltier effect, and the Thompson effect.The discovery of the thermoelectric conversion effect has aroused great interest in the scientific community, because from a macro perspective, the thermoelectric conversion effect means the direct conversion between thermal energy and electrical energy.

In our daily life, a lot of energy is wasted in the form of heat energy. For example, 40% of the energy in automobile fuel is discharged into the air by exhaust gas in the form of heat energy. A large amount of energy consumption in factory boilers is also in the form of heat energy. A large amount of waste heat generated by coal power generation in thermal power plants is also diffused into the atmosphere in the form of heat energy.

Today, as the world's energy is increasingly tense, non-renewable resources such as fossil energy are on the verge of exhaustion, and each of us is well aware of the value of energy.The greenhouse effect has caused the world's annual average temperature to rise continuously, resulting in the melting of glaciers and the increase of coastlines year by year, and the ecological balance in some areas has also been seriously damaged.

Such serious energy and environmental problems will greatly hinder the development of social economy. Therefore, the research and development of new energy has become a hot spot in the scientific community.

Among many new energy materials, thermoelectric materials have always attracted people's attention due to their unique properties.It is a semiconductor material that can directly convert electrical energy and thermal energy, so it is often used in low-temperature refrigeration and power generation.Thermoelectric materials are widely used in aerospace and field operations due to their unique advantages such as no pollution, no mechanical vibration, safety and reliability, and no noise.At the same time, due to its characteristics of no vibrating parts, no noise during operation, no emissions, and no pollution to the environment, thermoelectric materials have become a "set and forget" material, that is, they can be installed and operated for a long time without any maintenance measures It can also run stably, which is the main reason why thermoelectric materials become environmentally friendly materials with wide application prospects.

The realization of the thermoelectric effect relies on thermoelectric materials, and different thermoelectric materials have different efficiencies. At present, the relatively good thermoelectric materials only barely enter the 10% level, and they are still at the laboratory level.

"Has mass production been achieved?" Wang Feng asked. After all, there is still a huge gap between materials that have been commercialized and materials that have not been commercialized. After all, a few papers have been published, and then they are still in the laboratory There are also many new materials.

"This is not yet, but the industry has already expressed interest in it, and has begun to negotiate and cooperate. According to the internal information we have obtained, this material can be commercially produced, so the scale of the first private financing It has reached 5 million US dollars." Director Lu introduced, but he didn't say anything, and Wang Feng didn't ask.

That is, since there are ready-made materials, why develop them yourself?The reason is simple, because people don't plan to bring them to play with this kind of thing at all, they plan to make it themselves and then sell it to you or charge patent fees, it is absolutely impossible for people to buy shares.

"It's quite capable. It's worthy of being called the world's talent harvester and the lighthouse of the free world!" Wang Feng said with emotion. Even in the Marvel world, there are many black tech giants, and he can't take it lightly!
"So you came here because you want me?" Wang Feng probably understood what the other party meant. Since there is no way to increase the supply of coal in a short period of time, he can only find ways to improve his utilization efficiency.

Now that the production capacity has been reduced, it is not a simple matter to increase it, especially now that the price of thermal coal is rising; as for the consideration of imports, it is also unrealistic. According to the organizational capabilities of foreign countries, there is no There are ways to organize effective production and life under such circumstances.

"So we hope you can help us develop a thermoelectric material that can realize the utilization of waste heat below 400 ℃. We don't require its efficiency to be high, as long as it can reach more than 20%, which is better than that of foreign materials. That's enough." Director Lu may say that the idea above is very simple, since the other party was inspired by you, then you, the deity, must play better than the other party no matter what?
"We don't even require it. It must be better than him. It's okay to be similar. For the time being, as long as it can be used." Director Lu specially explained. After all, it is an emergency thing.

"Our only requirement is that it can be developed as quickly as possible, and it must meet the following conditions: the first is to be easy to produce, as long as its production conditions are not so harsh, we can quickly organize To raise enough productivity, carry out large-scale distribution in the market, and transform power plants and smelters so as to effectively improve power generation efficiency.”

"We don't even ask how long its service life is, as long as one and a half years is enough, and its efficiency can reach about 20%, we are sure that we can increase the power generation capacity by 8-10% nationwide, so that The improvement has been able to wish us through the electricity difficulties in summer."

"As for the growing electricity gap, the wind power plants we are building should be able to meet the requirements gradually. In the future, the proportion of clean energy power generation should become more and more important. This is a trend."

"Secondly, we hope that its materials can be obtained as easily as possible. Otherwise, if the pot burns and there is no rice, it will be a big problem, especially imported materials are almost impossible to come in now."

"The third is that we hope that its cost can be as low as possible. After all, our original intention is to increase the power generation capacity within the unit cost. Otherwise, with our industrial construction capabilities, we want to build more power plants. It was so easy."

Director Lu is full of confidence, not because he is blindly confident, but because we really have the confidence to say this.At present, a large part of the electricity used in China is converted from thermal energy, such as thermal power plants, nuclear power plants and large-scale solar power plants.In these industrial sectors, energy conversion is mainly the use of thermal energy to heat liquid or steam to drive steam turbines to generate electricity.

There is a saying that the history of human energy development is actually the history of continuous improvement of methods to boil water. In a sense, this sentence is indeed correct.But it is undeniable that boiling water is still the most energy-efficient way humans can think of.At present, the most advanced way of boiling water is an ultra-supercritical steam turbine generator set, with an efficiency of 45%.

However, the energy conversion process is complicated, the equipment is expensive and easy to wear out, and it pollutes the environment seriously.my country's sustained and high-speed economic growth in the past 30 years has consumed a large amount of energy, and at the same time produced a large amount of industrial heat energy, motor vehicle exhaust heat energy, and environmental heat energy.These waste heat and waste heat account for about 2/3 of the total generated energy.

If these thermal energy can be utilized, that would be great, after all, the base is there!But the problem is that the heat is waste heat, the kind that can't be used, which is a pity.

The thermoelectric effect is used to make up for this regret. Different from the traditional thermoelectric conversion method, the thermoelectric conversion device uses waste heat and waste heat to directly perform temperature difference power generation, which can not only effectively alleviate the energy shortage problem, but also help reduce environmental pollution.Initially, thermoelectric materials were mainly used in some special fields such as space exploration.In recent years, with the sharp shortage of energy supply and the remarkable progress in the research of high-performance thermoelectric materials, the method of using advanced thermoelectric conversion technology to convert a large amount of waste heat into electrical energy has been widely used in developed countries such as Japan, the United States, and Europe. universal.

For example, the thermal efficiency of a thermal power plant is generally 30% to 40%. By applying an alkali metal thermoelectric converter in the furnace of a power station boiler, the power generation efficiency of the system can be increased by 5% to 7%. Small-scale waste incinerators generally generate electricity intermittently and use temperature difference power generation. Power generation, directly converting combustion heat energy into electrical energy, can save waste heat boiler steam turbine generator and auxiliary equipment required for steam cycle.Some emerging application research, such as using the waste heat of automobile engine exhaust to generate electricity, has gradually been put into application and the effect is good, which has enhanced the competitiveness of using thermoelectric materials to generate electricity.

Thinking of this, Director Lu felt a burst of envy: This is all money!So after he finished speaking, he stared straight at Wang Feng, waiting for his answer.

(End of this chapter)