A Sound Way to Turn Heat into Electricity | Newswise: News for Journalists

Credit: University of Utah

University of Utah physicist Orest Symko demonstrates how heat can be converted into sound by using a blowtorch to heat a metallic screen inside a plastic tube, which then produces a loud tone, similar to when air is blown into a flute. Symko and his students are developing much smaller devices that not only convert heat to sound, but then use the sound to generate electricity. The devices may be used to cool electronics, harness solar energy in a new way, and conserve energy by changing waste heat into electric power.

« A Sound Way to Turn Heat into Electricity

Credit: University of Utah

University of Utah physicist Orest Symko holds a match to a small heat engine that produces a high-pitched tone by converting heat into sound. Symko's research team is combining such heat engines with existing technology that turns sound into electricity, resulting in devices that can harness solar energy in a new way, cool computers and other electronics, and conserve energy by changing waste heat into power.

« A Sound Way to Turn Heat into Electricity

Credit: University of Utah

Orest Symko, a University of Utah physics professor, demonstrates a device that turns heat into sound and then into electricity -- a promising new technology for capturing heat now wasted during industrial processes and turning it into electric power. Here, Symko uses a battery, not to turn on a light bulb directly, but to heat the device in his hands. The device changes the heat to audible sound, and then converts the sound into an electric current that makes the light bulb glow faint red.

« A Sound Way to Turn Heat into Electricity

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