Nuclear Steam Waste Reused

[Syed.Kamran]

Hiya, I'm a student in Grade 9. I'm starting to another science fair project, probably my 5th. Anyways, I did an awesome science fair project last year, went to the Canada Wide Science Fair and received a scholarship. I'm now applying for Team Canada for Intel ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair), however I kinda need to improve my project a lot. My project is about removing waste heat from the CANDU Nuclear Reactor using Thermoelectric Generators, I wanted to improve on that idea, I plan to improve the efficiency of the thermoelectric generator by using nano-structured semiconductors. However I wanted to know how would I go about doing this. I have over two months to work on this project, and am willing to spend around a $1000 in materials. I have some contacts at McMaster University (for lab usage) and a know of a Canadian manufacturer for thermoelectric generators. One more thing if you can download a brief overview of my project at

Code: Select all

http://bit.ly/9olMEu

Thanks!

[deleted-71712]

Hi Syed.Kamran,

Congrats on your success so far! I took a look at your project report and it is well put together.

Since the next stage of your project is about improving the performance of the thermoelectric generator by altering the microstructure, I would recommend including a much more detailed description of how the semiconductor junction works, citing some good references. In what way are these new generators "nanostructured"? How does that improve the efficiency? (I really don't know the answers to those questions, so it would help to point us to wherever you got that idea.) Are you planning to make some junctions yourself or purchase all of them?

Do your university contacts work in this field? They might be able to recommend some good references. If you're planning to make your own special semiconductor junctions, you will likely need some hands-on assistance by specialists in addition to the broad advice this forum can provide.

Amanda

[deleted-71588]

Your time budget and project funds are going to force you to compromise on what you can experiment with and what questions you can attempt to answer.

Currently available TEG devices that are in your budget probably aren't nanostructured (feature dimensions in nano-meters). Try contacting the Canadian manufacture and see if they are willing to "fund" your research by donating some TEG devices.

My instincts are that semiconductor designs that will withstand/produce high current density needed to recover a lot of power from a small volume probably won't involve nanostructures. NASA has some papers on the subject that investigate optimal dimensions and layering that tend to support my instincts. Do some searching for related papers. This is a "hot" area of investigation (puns intended). TEG generators have important applications in deep space probes because there is a small temperature differential between surfaces point at a nearby star and their opposites.

Because TEG devices used for heat recovery electrical generation must withstand heating and cooling cycles to be practicle (you shut things down for maintenance), and nanostructures are inheritly more sensitive to thermal stress fractures, there are probably practicle reasons why nanostructured TEG devices don't exist.

[Syed.Kamran]

Hiya,I did some research before I posted, and I got some surprising articles from several professors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology attempting to do something similar, you can check out there research at,

Code: Select all

http://bit.ly/aQvb9f

The canadian manufacturer is willing to help donate some TEG's to my science fair project, however none of them are nano-structured. Also, I apparently happened to stumble upon a patent in regards to this,

Code: Select all

http://bit.ly/dmQU2E

The patent generally covers what I wanted make. I can not seem to get my hands on a nano-structured thermoelectric generator, probably because they are not commercial. I am going to continue to search on how to could get my hands on the materials to make such a device or if I could just buy a couple (probably not gonna happen). In addition, with this device, I am simply going to compare its electrical output to a normal TEG, and also use thermal grease to improve its efficiency. My further goal as explained in the project report is to get AECL (Atomic Energy of Canada Limited) to incorporate these devices in the CANDU Reactor (CANada Deuterium Uranium Reactor). Thus improving the overall electrical output of the CANDU significantly over the long run.