A new approach for body heat energy harvesting

Abstract

Summary A new approach for body heat energy harvesting was proposed, and the theoretical performance has been demonstrated for wearable health care sensors as a target. One of the most important issues in the wearable system is a power supply. Humans keep their body temperature constant as long as they are alive. If we use thermal energy effectively, we could get the energy no matter when and where we go. However, thermal energy has hardly been used as power supply because thermoelectric conversion efficiency is very low. Quite different from the conventional thermoelectric device, the new approach uses rotation of turbine by stack effect. The driving force for the turbine is the pressure difference (ΔP) created by stack effect in a closed system. To obtain high performance, the device parameters are optimized by theoretical analysis. The obtained power density is 97.2 mW/cm3 when the outside air temperature is 277.15 K, and the device size is 5 mm × 2 mm × 10 mm. The energy density of the device is five or more times larger than that of a solar cell. The energy device can be assembled directly inside the various kind of wearable health care sensors. Therefore, the new approach for the body heat energy harvesting is a promising power supply means for the wearable system.

Internet of things energy system: Smart applications, technology advancement, and open issues

“…In humidity, temperature, and radiation sensors, the functionalities are to identify and monitor water vapor in the air, detect radiation in the atmosphere, and calculate the degree of heat or cold. These functionalities enabled IoT devices to be used in application areas such as smart healthcare, 6,27 smart transportations, 28,29 smart homes and buildings, 30,31 smart grids, 2,5 and more. The illustration of IoT energy applications is shown in Figure 4, an example of using cloud IoT based connecting things platform.…”

“…The operation of smart homes and smart grid appliances implies complexity and restrictions for energy conservation 5 . In healthcare, the most critical problems for the IoT wearable devices are the power supply 6 . Therefore, research in the IoT energy system in terms of stability, efficiency, storage, control, and interoperability, needs to be tackled.…”

Bio‐fuel cell for medical device energy system: A review

“…Wearable, nonwearable, and implantable devices connect to cloud computing for further diagnosis and data recording via the wireless IoT communication technology. 73 These devices offer an acceptable solution to medical systems for several purposes, for example, blood pressure monitoring and electrocardiogram applications. IoT devices allow physicians to monitor patient safety continuously through remote monitoring without physical interference.…”

Thermal management of wearable and implantable electronic healthcare devices: Perspective and measurement approach

“…The exploration of various advanced materials has expanded at present as part of the mechanical compliance for thermal fabrication; examples of these materials include carbon nanomaterials, [106][107][108][109] nanocellulose, 26 and nanocarbon composites, which can be used as substrates or thermal components. [110][111][112] The goal is to develop a device that can reduce energy consumption while improving user comfort and extending operation time. The major properties of common materials for thermal fabrication are good thermal conductivity, mechanical compliance, thermal stability, and flexibility.…”