Translator: Elisabeth Buffard Reviewer: Morgane Quilfen
Hello everyone.
Did you know that every minute on Earth,
we consume the equivalent of 18 000 tonnes of oil?
It means 520,000 car full minute.
And this figure has doubled in 40 years.
This will tell you how great the challenge of energy the next century.
If we want to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels,
if we want to minimize our impact on global warming,
one must act on both levers at the same time:
the first is to invest massively
in the development of renewable energy;
and the second is to reduce our energy consumption.
So the question is: how do
to reduce the power consumption
without returning to the Stone Age?
One solution is energy efficiency.
We must find ways
better use of the energy we consume.
Indeed, if we look at our energy consumption
at present, it is divided into three sectors
who each share a third of consumption:
industry, transport and housing.
And regardless of the sector,
was at least one third of the energy we use
which is directly lost as heat
whether in the flue gases,
in chimneys, in the exhaust gas,
you lose a third of our energy.
The idea that we had in my lab is to say:
Is what we could do something useful
with this waste heat?
Are we could turn it into electricity?
First we had to choose one area:
it was a small research team,
the three sectors together, it was a lot of work,
and so we chose to work on the industry.
The industry, it has a big advantage,
is that a relatively small number of plants
but each of these plants,
this is a very large source of waste heat.
So if we invent a system that transforms
this heat into electricity,
we will be able to install a small number
and have a big impact.
And the technology that we decided to use
to recover this heat and turn it into electricity,
is thermoelectricity.
Thermoelectricity, what is it?
It is a property of some materials
to directly convert heat into electricity without moving parts.
thermoelectric materials used
to a thermoelectric generator,
this is what you see in the center of the image,
and when you put that generator
between a source of heat, eg smoke,
and a cold source, water or air,
the heat which, in passing from one source to another,
through the thermoelectric generator
is partially converted into electricity.
In practice, what happens?
In practice, it looks like this: you have lit candles
which passes through the thermoelectric module which is here
and this heat is converted into electricity
and may power the electric motor which rotates the small fan.
It’s simple, it’s even pretty awesome idea!
Then you’ll say, but why is not it already over?
There are two big problems with thermoelectricity currently.
The first problem is that conventional thermoelectric materials
found in trade and that are the best
extremely expensive,
several hundred euros per kilo.
So at the Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering,
in the team of Professor Jacques Pascal,
we wanted to try to offer a solution to this problem,
So we said: we will work on a material,
we will not try to make the best of the world but to do it cheaper.
So we started working on the FEVVL,
a material mainly based on iron,
abundant element and really cheap cost.
The material costs 50 times less than conventional thermoelectric materials
but it also produces four times less electricity.
At first glance, it looks less interesting.
Besides, when we go into scientific conference
we are told: “Why work on this material?
It works less well than what already exists. “
But it is much cheaper!
If we make the ratio between the two, our material is actually
twelve times more interesting
that is to say that for the same amount of electricity generated,
a system that uses our material will cost 12 times cheaper.
And then it starts to get interesting.
The second problem of conventional thermoelectric materials,
is that you can not make large quantities.
It is limited to a few tens or hundreds of kilograms per day
for larger producers.
If one wants to thermoelectric generators
in all the world’s plants,
he’ll have to make tons.
Again, the thermoelectric material based on iron that develops inventory,
it has an advantage: it is based on iron
and therefore we can use the same methods to make steel.
And steel, it’s dozens and dozens of years
we have developed processes to make tons continuously.
Where are we right now?
We worked on this material, we control its manufacture
we control its properties,
Now what we want to do is show that you can use
in an application.
For that, we work on the project Gtherm
funded Walloon region,
where we want to show in two years
a thermoelectric system, with our material,
can recover heat and convert it into electricity
on a plant in the Liege region.
For now, it has been shown by calculation
that if we build a full size system
So for a plant could produce 150 kilowatts power.
150 electrical kilowatts is enough to power 360 households.
But even better,
it is enough to power the stadium Standard
250 games per year.
And if we can help the Standard, at present,
I think they will be happy.
In addition, use of renewable energy
recovered in factories in the Liège region
for producing electricity,
I think it’s an idea that would appeal to the President of the Standard.
In addition, as our material costs really cheap,
it was a time of return on investment very, very low.
That is to say that if we invest
in a system with our thermoelectric material,
after just one year, it has recovered its implementation
by reducing the electricity bill.
Compared with other renewable energies,
e.g. photovoltaic,
Well here we are close to 7 years.
And yet 7 years is including all public support we can have
for this type of renewable energy.
So I have explained how an optimized material costs,
for mass production, could have a major impact
on energy consumption in the industry.
But what’s great about thermoelectricity,
is that in fact it can be applied to all sectors.
Take transport, for example.
If instead thermoelectric generators
all the exhaust pipes of cars,
can generate electricity,
remove the alternator in cars
and thus reduce car fuel consumption.
And if we take the housing sector,
could make thermoelectric generators,
placing in boilers
and so do the CHP,
and therefore the boilers could generate their own electricity
and again reduce the overall consumption of housing.
But if all this is possible today,
thanks to two things:
the fact that every day there are researchers like me
who rise, who go to the lab and trying to realize this dream
having thermoelectric generators everywhere
in all plants, in all cars,
in all units of the world.
And secondly, it is because there are researchers who have the idea
a little crazy at the base of that it was also necessary to consider the cost
when doing research and not only seek to obtain
the best performance.
Thank you all for your attention.
(Applause)
Hello everyone.
Did you know that every minute on Earth,
we consume the equivalent of 18 000 tonnes of oil?
It means 520,000 car full minute.
And this figure has doubled in 40 years.
This will tell you how great the challenge of energy the next century.
If we want to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels,
if we want to minimize our impact on global warming,
one must act on both levers at the same time:
the first is to invest massively
in the development of renewable energy;
and the second is to reduce our energy consumption.
So the question is: how do
to reduce the power consumption
without returning to the Stone Age?
One solution is energy efficiency.
We must find ways
better use of the energy we consume.
Indeed, if we look at our energy consumption
at present, it is divided into three sectors
who each share a third of consumption:
industry, transport and housing.
And regardless of the sector,
was at least one third of the energy we use
which is directly lost as heat
whether in the flue gases,
in chimneys, in the exhaust gas,
you lose a third of our energy.
The idea that we had in my lab is to say:
Is what we could do something useful
with this waste heat?
Are we could turn it into electricity?
First we had to choose one area:
it was a small research team,
the three sectors together, it was a lot of work,
and so we chose to work on the industry.
The industry, it has a big advantage,
is that a relatively small number of plants
but each of these plants,
this is a very large source of waste heat.
So if we invent a system that transforms
this heat into electricity,
we will be able to install a small number
and have a big impact.
And the technology that we decided to use
to recover this heat and turn it into electricity,
is thermoelectricity.
Thermoelectricity, what is it?
It is a property of some materials
to directly convert heat into electricity without moving parts.
thermoelectric materials used
to a thermoelectric generator,
this is what you see in the center of the image,
and when you put that generator
between a source of heat, eg smoke,
and a cold source, water or air,
the heat which, in passing from one source to another,
through the thermoelectric generator
is partially converted into electricity.
In practice, what happens?
In practice, it looks like this: you have lit candles
which passes through the thermoelectric module which is here
and this heat is converted into electricity
and may power the electric motor which rotates the small fan.
It’s simple, it’s even pretty awesome idea!
Then you’ll say, but why is not it already over?
There are two big problems with thermoelectricity currently.
The first problem is that conventional thermoelectric materials
found in trade and that are the best
extremely expensive,
several hundred euros per kilo.
So at the Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering,
in the team of Professor Jacques Pascal,
we wanted to try to offer a solution to this problem,
So we said: we will work on a material,
we will not try to make the best of the world but to do it cheaper.
So we started working on the FEVVL,
a material mainly based on iron,
abundant element and really cheap cost.
The material costs 50 times less than conventional thermoelectric materials
but it also produces four times less electricity.
At first glance, it looks less interesting.
Besides, when we go into scientific conference
we are told: “Why work on this material?
It works less well than what already exists. “
But it is much cheaper!
If we make the ratio between the two, our material is actually
twelve times more interesting
that is to say that for the same amount of electricity generated,
a system that uses our material will cost 12 times cheaper.
And then it starts to get interesting.
The second problem of conventional thermoelectric materials,
is that you can not make large quantities.
It is limited to a few tens or hundreds of kilograms per day
for larger producers.
If one wants to thermoelectric generators
in all the world’s plants,
he’ll have to make tons.
Again, the thermoelectric material based on iron that develops inventory,
it has an advantage: it is based on iron
and therefore we can use the same methods to make steel.
And steel, it’s dozens and dozens of years
we have developed processes to make tons continuously.
Where are we right now?
We worked on this material, we control its manufacture
we control its properties,
Now what we want to do is show that you can use
in an application.
For that, we work on the project Gtherm
funded Walloon region,
where we want to show in two years
a thermoelectric system, with our material,
can recover heat and convert it into electricity
on a plant in the Liege region.
For now, it has been shown by calculation
that if we build a full size system
So for a plant could produce 150 kilowatts power.
150 electrical kilowatts is enough to power 360 households.
But even better,
it is enough to power the stadium Standard
250 games per year.
And if we can help the Standard, at present,
I think they will be happy.
In addition, use of renewable energy
recovered in factories in the Liège region
for producing electricity,
I think it’s an idea that would appeal to the President of the Standard.
In addition, as our material costs really cheap,
it was a time of return on investment very, very low.
That is to say that if we invest
in a system with our thermoelectric material,
after just one year, it has recovered its implementation
by reducing the electricity bill.
Compared with other renewable energies,
e.g. photovoltaic,
Well here we are close to 7 years.
And yet 7 years is including all public support we can have
for this type of renewable energy.
So I have explained how an optimized material costs,
for mass production, could have a major impact
on energy consumption in the industry.
But what’s great about thermoelectricity,
is that in fact it can be applied to all sectors.
Take transport, for example.
If instead thermoelectric generators
all the exhaust pipes of cars,
can generate electricity,
remove the alternator in cars
and thus reduce car fuel consumption.
And if we take the housing sector,
could make thermoelectric generators,
placing in boilers
and so do the CHP,
and therefore the boilers could generate their own electricity
and again reduce the overall consumption of housing.
But if all this is possible today,
thanks to two things:
the fact that every day there are researchers like me
who rise, who go to the lab and trying to realize this dream
having thermoelectric generators everywhere
in all plants, in all cars,
in all units of the world.
And secondly, it is because there are researchers who have the idea
a little crazy at the base of that it was also necessary to consider the cost
when doing research and not only seek to obtain
the best performance.
Thank you all for your attention.
(Applause)
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