Thermodynamic Limits of Energy Harvesting from Outgoing Thermal Radiation

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2018 Apr 4

PMID 29610347

Citations 9

Authors

Siddharth Buddhiraju

Parthiban Santhanam

Shanhui Fan

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We derive the thermodynamic limits of harvesting power from the outgoing thermal radiation from the ambient to the cold outer space. The derivations are based on a duality relation between thermal engines that harvest solar radiation and those that harvest outgoing thermal radiation. In particular, we derive the ultimate limit for harvesting outgoing thermal radiation, which is analogous to the Landsberg limit for solar energy harvesting, and show that the ultimate limit far exceeds what was previously thought to be possible. As an extension of our work, we also derive the ultimate limit of efficiency of thermophotovoltaic systems.

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