You might have been taught in school that energy only changes from one type to another when consumed. If you read between the lines you will realize that while one form of energy is being used, the other ends up being a bi-product: in short it's wasted. So when you are using computers and cell phones, electrical energy is getting converted into heat as a by-product. However, an MIT based research team is in the process of developing a system to convert this wasted energy back into electricity which will in turn power the devices producing the waste! Working in collaboration with MTPV Corp., the team is already carrying out experiments to identify the Carnot limits they can achieve. A Carnot cycle symbolizes and cycle of energy expansion and compression for a reversible heat engine which can work without heat loss. This technology can enable laptops and cell phones to run double than their original a battery capacity and can also be used to produce high-efficiency power plants, cars and planes too.

The devices which are currently in use, utilize about one/tenth of their capacity, but by using thermal diodes the capacity usage increased up to 40 percent and the team seems confident to get it up to 90 percent. The reason attributed to this increase in efficiency is the reduced amount of space between the hot surface and the conversion device which is a quantum-dot semiconductor.

Via - [Greenlaunches]