Pyroelectric Energy Harvesting: With Thermodynamic-Based Cycles

Abstract

This work deals with energy harvesting from temperature variations using ferroelectric materials as a microgenerator. The previous researches show that direct pyroelectric energy harvesting is not effective, whereas thermodynamic-based cycles give higher energy. Also, at different temperatures some thermodynamic cycles exhibit different behaviours. In this paper pyroelectric energy harvesting using Lenoir and Ericsson thermodynamic cycles has been studied numerically and the two cycles were compared with each other. The material used is the PMN-25 PT single crystal that is a very interesting material in the framework of energy harvesting and sensor applications.