A Magneto-Mechanical Piezoelectric Energy Harvester Designed to Scavenge AC Magnetic Field from Thermal Power Plant with Power-Line Cables

Quan Wang,Kyung-Bum Kim,Sang-Bum Woo,Tae-Hyun Sung,Yooseob Song

doi:10.3390/en14092387

Quan Wang, Kyung-Bum Kim + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/en14092387

Copy DOI

Abstract

Piezoelectric energy harvesters have attracted much attention because they are crucial in portable industrial applications. Here, we report on a high-power device based on a magneto-mechanical piezoelectric energy harvester to scavenge the AC magnetic field from a power-line cable for industrial applications. The electrical output performance of the harvester (×4 layers) reached an output voltage of 60.8 Vmax, an output power of 215 mWmax (98 mWrms), and a power density of 94.5 mWmax/cm3 (43.5 mWrms/cm3) at an impedance matching of 5 kΩ under a magnetic field of 80 μT. The multilayer energy harvester enables high-output performance, presenting an obvious advantage given this improved level of output power. Finite element simulations were also performed to support the experimental observations. The generator was successfully used to power a wireless sensor network (WSN) for use on an IoT device composed of a temperature sensor in a thermal power station. The result shows that the magneto-mechanical piezoelectric energy harvester (MPEH) demonstrated is capable of meeting the requirements of self-powered monitoring systems under a small magnetic field, and is quite promising for use in actual industrial applications.

Highlights

Energy harvesting is becoming an important technology for smart industrial monitoring systems [1,2]
Sustainable energy is harvested from ambient sources including magnetic fields and mechanical, thermal, and solar energy sources, which are converted into electricity
An oscillating magnetic field is an energy source that can be used for energy harvesting, and magnetic fields generated around electronics, power cables, and manufacturing machines are all surrounded by fields with a power of 60 Hz [6,7,8,9]