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“MAGENTA proposes a brand new technological technology path in thermoelectric materials research for waste-heat recovery applications.”
Today, much of world’s consumed energy is lost to waste heat through all levels of human activity. For example, thermal loss consists 20 to 50 % of total energy consumption across different industrial sectors and as high as 60-70% in current gasoline and/or diesel powered. If even a small fraction of ‘waste-heat’ could be converted into more useful forms of energy (e.g., electrical, mechanical, etc.), it would result in tremendous savings to global energy consumption.
In the MAGENTA H2020 project we are developing brand new thermoelectric materials based on ionic ferrofluids; i.e., colloidal dispersions of magnetic nanoparticles in ionic liquids. It is an inter-disciplinary and cross-sector R&D project combining concepts and techniques from physics, chemistry and electrochemistry with an active participation from industrial partners. As its final products, MAGENTA will offer novel liquid thermoelectric materials that are versatile, cost-effective and non-toxic to assist the economically and environmentally sustainable energy transition in Europe.
MAGENTA H2020 proposes a brand new technological path in thermoelectric materials research for waste-heat recovery applications. The originality of the project is based on the newly discovered thermal-to-electric energy conversion capacity of ionic-liquids and ferrofluids; i.e., colloidal dispersions of magnetic nanoparticles in ionic liquids (IL-FFs). It is an inter- disciplinary and cross-sector R&D project combining concepts and techniques from physics, chemistry and electrochemistry with an active participation from 3 SME and 1 industrial partners implicated in the materials supply-chain, the device design/ performance and the market-uptake assessment.
Both experimental and theoretical approaches will be employed to build foundational knowledge on novel magneto-thermoelectric phenomena in ferrofluids. Computational simulations will allow ‘bottom-up’ construction of IL-FFs with optimal conditions for harvesting energy. The end-products of MAGENTA, application specific magneto-thermoelectric materials and devices, will provide innovation leadership to European companies in waste- heat recovery industries. The lead-user industries targeted by MAGENTA are automobile and microelectronic sectors, but demonstration-type thermoelectric generators will also be produced for public outreach actions on waste-heat recovery technologies.
Through its foundational, interdisciplinary and cross-sector research & innovation actions, the consortium will become a “seed community” for building an innovation ecosystem around the novel magneto-thermoelectric technology, presenting long-term impacts on future renewal energy science and technology from which the society as a whole can benefit. Withal, MAGENTA offers breakthrough thermoelectric materials that are versatile, cost-effective and non-toxic to assist the economically and environmentally sustainable energy transition in Europe.