Japan researchers use AI to speed up thermoelectric generator design
- AI tool accelerates thermoelectric generator design while matching performance of state-of-the-art prototypes
- TEGNet reduces simulation time from thousands of seconds to fractions of one
- Cheaper waste heat recoverers could follow, although manufacturing still needs to be proven
Japanese researchers have built an AI tool that can design thermoelectric generators much faster than standard simulation methods, pointing to cheaper ways to turn waste heat into electricity.
TEGNet was developed by Takao Mori and colleagues at the Japanese National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS) and the University of Tsukuba.
In the article published in Natureit predicted generator performance with over 99% accuracy while using only 0.01% of the computing time required by commercial finite element solvers.
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Act as a quick emulator
Thermoelectric generators transform heat differences directly into electricity, without turbines or moving parts.
They already power spacecraft, remote sensors and some isolated infrastructure, but their cost and poor performance have kept them from widespread use in factories, refineries, vehicles and electronics.
Designing thermoelectric generators is slow because researchers must balance materials, geometry, temperature conditions, electrical resistance and heat flow.
A conventional solver must solve coupled physics equations over and over again, which can take days or even weeks for in-depth research.
TEGNet learns from these simulations and then acts as a fast emulator. The paper states that a typical material simulation took about 2,237 seconds in COMSOL, while TEGNet produced the same type of result in about 0.25 seconds.
Researchers used AI to improve two types of generators, one built from stacked layers of different materials and another made from paired semiconductor materials that work together to produce electricity.
The lab-built prototypes achieved conversion efficiencies of 9.3% and 8.7%, respectively, placing them among the best results reported for this temperature range.
This still does not make thermoelectrics a panacea. The conversion of heat to electricity is limited by basic thermodynamics, and these devices need a sufficient temperature difference to be useful.
The interesting part is the cost. Mori said IEEE Spectrum that the estimated costs suggest that an industrially competitive cost of electricity production could be possible “for the first time in thermoelectric history”.
TEGNet also identified designs that could use simpler manufacturing and, in some cases, avoid bismuth telluride, a common but expensive thermoelectric material.
This could help waste heat recoverers and high-performance domestic heat pumps become cheaper, although real-world manufacturing has yet to prove the numbers.
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