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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "E: Electric Vehicles".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 November 2021) | Viewed by 35594

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Dibin Zhu

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Guest Editor

School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Interests: energy harvesting; self-powered systems; wireless power transfer
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are inviting submissions to a Special Issue of Energies on the subject area of “Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies”. Energy harvesting concerns the conversion of unused or wasted energy in an ambient environment into useful electrical energy. It enables small electronic systems such as wireless sensors to become self-powered and potentially completely autonomous. Energy harvesting is now becoming a key enabling technology for widespread and maintenance-free deployment of wireless nodes for future Internet of Things (IoT). Research in energy harvesting covers a wide range of fields from fundamental research in functional materials to system level integration. This Special Issue aims to present state-of-the-art research in a variety of topics with the goal of developing practical energy harvesting solutions. We welcome original research articles which should include rigorous methodology and in-depth discussions to present novel solutions to challenges in relevant fields. Review articles summarising the current state of understanding of a particular topic in the field of energy harvesting are also welcome.

Topics of interest for publication include but are not limited to:

Functional materials for energy harvesting applications;
Modelling and analysis of energy harvesters;
Kinetic energy harvesting, e.g., vibration and flow energy harvesting;
Thermoelectric energy harvesting;
Wearable energy harvesting;
Biochemical and bio-inspired power/energy systems;
RF energy harvesting;
Power management for energy harvesting systems;
Self-powered integrated/embedded sensor systems;
Applications and innovations of energy harvesting systems.

Dr. Dibin Zhu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

energy harvesting
energy conversion
functional materials
modelling
power management
autonomous sensors
IoT

Published Papers (13 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research, Review

3 pages, 170 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Advance Energy Harvesting Technologies

by Dibin Zhu

Energies 2022, 15(7), 2366; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15072366 - 24 Mar 2022

Viewed by 1454

Abstract

Energy harvesting is the conversion of unused or wasted energy in the ambient environment into useful electrical energy [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

17 pages, 4467 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Vibration Converter with Passive Energy Management for Battery-Less Wireless Sensor Nodes in Predictive Maintenance

by Sonia Bradai, Ghada Bouattour, Dhouha El Houssaini and Olfa Kanoun

Energies 2022, 15(6), 1982; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15061982 - 8 Mar 2022

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2537

Abstract

Predictive maintenance is becoming increasingly important in industry and requires continuous monitoring to prevent failures and anticipate maintenance processes, resulting in reduced downtime. Vibration is often used for failure detection and equipment conditioning as it is well correlated to the machine’s operation and its variation is an indicator of process changes. In this context, we propose a novel energy-autonomous wireless sensor system that is able to measure without the use of batteries and automatically deliver alerts once the machine has an anomaly by the variation in acceleration. For this, we designed a wideband electromagnetic energy harvester and realized passive energy management to supply a wireless sensor node, which does not need an external energy supply. The advantage of the solution is that the designed circuit is able to detect the failure without the use of additional sensors, but by the Analog Digital Converter (ADC) of the Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSN) themselves, which makes it more compact and have lower energy consumption. The electromagnetic converter can harvest the relevant energy levels from weak vibration, with an acceleration of 0.1 g for a frequency bandwidth of 7 Hz. Further, the energy-management circuit enabled fast recharging of the super capacitor on a maximum of 31 s. The designed energy-management circuit consists of a six-stage voltage multiplier circuit connected to a wide-band DC-DC converter, as well as an under-voltage lock-out (UVLO) circuit to connect to the storage device to the WSN. In the failure condition with a frequency of 13 Hz and an acceleration of 0.3 g, the super capacitor recharging time was estimated to be 24 s. The proposed solution was validated by implementing real failure detection scenarios with random acceleration levels and, alternatively, modus. The results show that the WSN can directly measure the harvester’s response and decide about the occurrence of failure based on its characteristic threshold voltage without the use of an additional sensor. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies)

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15 pages, 5442 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Dual Resonance Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvester for Wide Harvested Frequency Range with Enhanced Output Power

by Zhijie Feng, Han Peng and Yong Chen

Energies 2021, 14(22), 7675; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14227675 - 16 Nov 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1591

Abstract

A dual resonance vibration electromagnetic energy harvester (EMEH) is proposed in this paper to extend frequency range. Compared with the conventional dual resonance harvester, the proposed system realizes an enhanced “band-pass” harvesting characteristic by increasing the relative displacement between magnet and coil among two resonance frequencies with a significant improvement in the average harvested power. Furthermore, two resonant frequencies are decoupled in the proposed system, which leads to a more straightforward design. The proposed dual resonance EMEH is constructed with a tubular dual spring-mass structure. It is designed with a serpentine planar spring and the coil position is optimized for higher power density with an overall size of 53.9 cm³ for the dual resonance EMEH. It realizes an output power of 11 mW at the first resonant frequency of 58 Hz, 14.9 mW at the second resonant frequency of 74.5 Hz, and 0.52 mW at 65 Hz, which is in the middle of the two resonance frequencies. The frequency range of output power above 0.5 mW is from 55.8 Hz to 79.1 Hz. The maximum normalized power density (NPD) reaches up to 2.77 mW/(cm³·g²). Compared with a single resonance harvester design under the same topology and outer dimension at a resonant frequency of 74.5 Hz, the frequency range in the proposed EMEH achieves more than a 2× times extension. The proposed dual resonance EMEH also has more than 2 times wider frequency range than other state-of-art wideband EMEHs. Therefore, the proposed dual resonance EMEH is demonstrated in this paper for a high maximum NPD and higher NPD over a wide frequency range. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies)

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11 pages, 3072 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Silicon Particles/Black Paint Coating for Performance Enhancement of Solar Absorbers

by Shwe Sin Han, Usman Ghafoor, Tareq Saeed, Hassan Elahi, Usman Masud, Laveet Kumar, Jeyraj Selvaraj and Muhammad Shakeel Ahmad

Energies 2021, 14(21), 7140; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14217140 - 1 Nov 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1910

Abstract

The availability of fresh drinkable water and water security is becoming a global challenge for sustainable development. In this regard, solar stills, due to their ease in operation, installation, and utilization of direct sunlight (as thermal energy), promise a better and sustainable future technology for water security in urban and remote areas. The major issue is its low distillate productivity, which limits its widespread commercialization. In this study, the effect of silicon (Si) particles is examined to improve the absorber surface temperature of the solar still absorber plate, which is the major component for increased distillate yield. Various weight percentages of Si particles were introduced in paint and coated on the aluminum absorber surface. Extensive indoor (using a self-made halogen light-based solar simulator) and outdoor testing were conducted to optimize the concentration. The coatings with 15 wt % Si in the paint exhibited the highest increase in temperature, namely, 98.5 °C under indoor controlled conditions at 1000 W/m² irradiation, which is 65.81% higher than a bare aluminum plate and 37.09% higher compared to a black paint-coated aluminum plate. On the other hand, coatings with 10 wt % Si reached up to 73.2 °C under uncontrolled outdoor conditions compared to 68.8 °C for the black paint-coated aluminum plate. A further increase in concentration did not improve the surface temperature, which was due to an excessive increase in thermal conductivity and high convective heat losses. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies)

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14 pages, 2895 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Strategies to Facilitate Photovoltaic Applications in Road Structures for Energy Harvesting

by Yiqing Dai, Yan Yin and Yundi Lu

Energies 2021, 14(21), 7097; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14217097 - 30 Oct 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2829

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) facilities are sustainable and promising approaches for energy harvesting, but their applications usually require adequate spaces. Road structures account for a considerable proportion of urban and suburban areas and may be feasible for incorporation with photovoltaic facilities, and thereby have attracted research interests. One solution for such applications is to take advantage of the spare ground in road facilities without traffic load, where the solar panels are mounted as their conventional applications. Such practices have been applied in medians and slopes of roads and open spaces in interchanges. Applications in accessory buildings and facilities including noise/wind barriers, parking lots, and lightings have also been reported. More efforts in existing researches have been paid to PV applications in load-bearing pavement structures, possibly because the pavement structures cover the major area of road structures. Current strategies are encapsulating PV cells by transparent coverings to different substrates to prefabricate modular PV panels in factories for onsite installation. Test road sections with such modular solar panels have been reported, where inferior cost-effectiveness and difficulties in maintenance have been evidenced, suggesting more challenges exist than expected. In order to enhance the power output of the integrated PV facilities, experiences from building-integrated PVs may be helpful, including a selection of proper PV technologies, an optimized inclination of PV panels, and mitigating the operational temperature of PV cells. Novel integrations of amorphous silicon PV cells and glass fiber reinforced polymer profiles are proposed in this research for multi-scenario applications, and their mechanical robustness was evaluated by bending experiments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies)

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21 pages, 4185 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Fully Featured Thermal Energy Harvesting Tracker for Wildlife

by Eiko Bäumker, Luca Conrad, Laura Maria Comella and Peter Woias

Energies 2021, 14(19), 6363; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14196363 - 5 Oct 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2339

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a novel animal-tracking-system, solely powered by thermal energy harvesting. The tracker achieves an outstanding 100

μ W

of electrical power harvested over an area of only 2 times

20.5

c

m

^{2}

, using the temperature difference between [...] Read more.

In this paper, we describe a novel animal-tracking-system, solely powered by thermal energy harvesting. The tracker achieves an outstanding 100

μ W

of electrical power harvested over an area of only 2 times

20.5

c

m

^{2}

, using the temperature difference between the animal’s fur and the environment, with a total weight of 286

g

. The steps to enhance the power income are presented and validated in a field-test, using a system that fulfills common tracking-tasks, including GPS with a fix every 1.1

h

to 1.5

h

, activity and temperature measurements, all data wirelessly transmitted via LoRaWAN at a period of 14

\min

. Furthermore, we describe our ultra low power design that achieves an overall sleep power consumption of only 8

μ W

and is able to work down to temperature differences of

0.9

K

applied to the TEGs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies)

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18 pages, 4021 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Designing a Wind Energy Harvester for Connected Vehicles in Green Cities

by Zuhaib Ashfaq Khan, Hafiz Husnain Raza Sherazi, Mubashir Ali, Muhammad Ali Imran, Ikram Ur Rehman and Prasun Chakrabarti

Energies 2021, 14(17), 5408; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14175408 - 31 Aug 2021

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 3760

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) have recently gained momentum as an integral part of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) when authorities started expanding their low emission zones (LEZs) in an effort to build green cities with low carbon footprints. Energy is one of the key requirements of EVs, not only to support the smooth and sustainable operation of EVs, but also to ensure connectivity between the vehicle and the infrastructure in the critical times such as disaster recovery operation. In this context, renewable energy sources (such as wind energy) have an important role to play in the automobile sector towards designing energy-harvesting electric vehicles (EH-EV) to mitigate energy reliance on the national grid. In this article, a novel approach is presented to harness energy from a small-scale wind turbine due to vehicle mobility to support the communication primitives in electric vehicles which enable plenty of IoV use cases. The harvested power is then processed through a regulation circuitry to consequently achieve the desired power supply for the end load (i.e., battery or super capacitor). The suitable orientation for optimum conversion efficiency is proposed through ANSYS-based aerodynamics analysis. The voltage-induced by the DC generator is 35 V under the no-load condition while it is 25 V at a rated current of 6.9 A at full-load, yielding a supply of 100 W (on constant voltage) at a speed of 90 mph for nominal battery charging. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies)

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12 pages, 6867 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Self-Oscillating Boost Converter of Wiegand Pulse Voltage for Self-Powered Modules

by Xiaoya Sun, Haruchika Iijima, Stefano Saggini and Yasushi Takemura

Energies 2021, 14(17), 5373; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14175373 - 29 Aug 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2402

Abstract

This paper introduces a new method of electricity generation using a Wiegand sensor. The Wiegand sensor consists of a magnetic wire and a pickup coil wound around it. This sensor generates a pulse voltage of approximately 5 V and 20 µs width as an induced voltage in the pickup coil. The aim of this study is to generate a DC voltage of 5 V from the sensor, which is expected to be used as a power source in self-powered devices and battery-less modules. We report on the design and verification of a self-oscillating boost converter circuit in this paper. A DC voltage obtained by rectifying and smoothing the pulse voltage generated from the Wiegand sensor was boosted by the circuit. A stable DC output voltage in the order of 5 V for use as a power supply in electronics modules was successfully obtained. A quantitative analysis of the power generated by the Wiegand sensor revealed a suitable voltage-current range for application in self-powered devices and battery-less modules. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies)

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19 pages, 6135 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental and Numerical Characterization of a Gravitational Electromagnetic Energy Harvester

by Caterina Russo, Mirco Lo Monaco, Federico Fraccarollo and Aurelio Somà

Energies 2021, 14(15), 4622; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14154622 - 30 Jul 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1709

Abstract

In this paper, the dynamic experimental identification of an inductive energy harvester for the conversion of vibration energy into electric power is presented. Recent advances and requirements in structural monitoring and vehicle diagnostic allow defining Autonomous Internet of Things (AIoT) systems that combine wireless sensor nodes with energy harvester devices properly designed considering the specific duty cycle. The proposed generator was based on an asymmetrical magnetic suspension and was addressed to structural monitoring applications on vehicles. The design of the interfaces of the electric, magnetic, and structural coupled systems forming the harvester are described including dynamic modeling and simulation. Finally, the results of laboratory tests were compared with the harvester dynamic response calculated through numerical simulations, and a good correspondence was obtained. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies)

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17 pages, 6814 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Numerical Simulation of Acoustic Resonance Enhancement for Mean Flow Wind Energy Harvester as Well as Suppression for Pipeline

by Liuyi Jiang, Hong Zhang, Qingquan Duan and Xiaoben Liu

Energies 2021, 14(6), 1725; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14061725 - 19 Mar 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2319

Abstract

Acoustic resonance in closed side branches should be enhanced to improve the efficiency of wind energy harvesting equipment or thermo-acoustic engine. However, in gas pipeline transportation systems, this kind of acoustic resonance should be suppressed to avoid fatigue damage to the pipeline. Realizable k-ε delayed detached eddy simulations (DDES) were conducted to study the effect of different branch pipe shapes on acoustic resonance. At some flow velocities, the pressure amplitude of the simulation results is twice as large as that of the experimental results, but the simulation can accurately capture the flow velocity range where acoustic resonance occurs. The results prove the feasibility of the method of the equivalent diameter of the circular cross-section pipe and the square cross-section pipe to predict acoustic resonance. The pressure pulsation amplitude of acoustic resonance in a square cross-section pipe is significantly increased than that in a circular square cross-section pipe, indicating that the square cross-section branch configuration can be more conducive to improving the efficiency of wind energy harvesting. The influence of the angle between the branch and the main pipe on the acoustic resonance was studied for the first time, which has an obvious influence on the acoustic resonance. It is found that the design of a square wind energy harvester is better than that of a circular one; meanwhile, changing the branch angle can increase or suppress the acoustic resonance, which can improve the utilization efficiency of the acoustic resonance and provide a new method for suppressing the acoustic resonance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies)

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11 pages, 18504 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Quad-Trapezoidal-Leg Orthoplanar Spring with Piezoelectric Plate for Enhancing the Performances of Vibration Energy Harvester

by Yan Liu, Shuting Mo, Siyao Shang, Hai Wang, Peng Wang and Keyuan Yang

Energies 2020, 13(22), 5919; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13225919 - 13 Nov 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1452

Abstract

To validate the potentials of unequal-length section-varied geometry in developing a orthoplanar spring-based piezoelectric vibration energy harvester (PVEH), a modified spring with quad-trapezoidal-leg configuration is designed, analyzed, and fabricated. A basic quad-trapezoidal-leg orthoplanar spring (QTOPS) is theoretically analyzed, and the structural effective stress and eigenfrequency are formulated to determine the main dimension parameters. Then, an improved QTOPS with additional intermediations is constructed and simulated. Porotypes with different leg geometries and mass configurations are fabricated and tested. The results of QTOPS and a conventional rectangular-shaped spring are compared. It is verified that the proposed approach provides the structure with an enlarged effective stress and lower resonant frequency, which makes it more suitable to construct a high-performance PVEH than the orthoplanar spring with equal-length or rectangular legs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies)

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Review

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24 pages, 2437 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

A Review on Kinetic Energy Harvesting with Focus on 3D Printed Electromagnetic Vibration Harvesters

by Philipp Gawron, Thomas M. Wendt, Lukas Stiglmeier, Nikolai Hangst and Urban B. Himmelsbach

Energies 2021, 14(21), 6961; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14216961 - 22 Oct 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2766

Abstract

The increasing amount of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and wearables require a reliable energy source. Energy harvesting can power these devices without changing batteries. Three-dimensional printing allows us to manufacture tailored harvesting devices in an easy and fast way. This paper presents the development of hybrid and non-hybrid 3D printed electromagnetic vibration energy harvesters. Various harvesting approaches, their utilised geometry, functional principle, power output and the applied printing processes are shown. The gathered harvesters are analysed, challenges examined and research gaps in the field identified. The advantages and challenges of 3D printing harvesters are discussed. Reported applications and strategies to improve the performance of printed harvesting devices are presented. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies)

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33 pages, 7960 KiB

Open AccessReview

Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Energy Harvesting in Ocean: A Review on Application and Hybridization

by Ali Matin Nazar, King-James Idala Egbe, Azam Abdollahi and Mohammad Amin Hariri-Ardebili

Energies 2021, 14(18), 5600; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14185600 - 7 Sep 2021

Cited by 32 | Viewed by 5524

Abstract

With recent advancements in technology, energy storage for gadgets and sensors has become a challenging task. Among several alternatives, the triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) have been recognized as one of the most reliable methods to cure conventional battery innovation’s inadequacies. A TENG transfers mechanical energy from the surrounding environment into power. Natural energy resources can empower TENGs to create a clean and conveyed energy network, which can finally facilitate the development of different remote gadgets. In this review paper, TENGs targeting various environmental energy resources are systematically summarized. First, a brief introduction is given to the ocean waves’ principles, as well as the conventional energy harvesting devices. Next, different TENG systems are discussed in details. Furthermore, hybridization of TENGs with other energy innovations such as solar cells, electromagnetic generators, piezoelectric nanogenerators and magnetic intensity are investigated as an efficient technique to improve their performance. Advantages and disadvantages of different TENG structures are explored. A high level overview is provided on the connection of TENGs with structural health monitoring, artificial intelligence and the path forward. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologies)

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