Sound Power = Acoutic Engines

For the past fifty years the world has used electrical power created from rotating magnetic fields. We have been surprisingly limited in finding other non-rotating magentic field forms of electricity generation. The dominant methods for creating the rotation are steam turbines and the internal combustion engines. These have worked well but mean that some wonderful heat power sources like nuclear have to be converted to rotating power using steam turbines. It seems a great waste to turn all that heat into steam and then electricity rather than heat directly to electricity but it is pretty efficient, 40% compared with 15% for solar cells. The popularity of the rotating technique tells its own story.

The search for more efficient ways to turn heat into electricity has been ongoing for a while. Solar panels have been researched for a long time, now Orest Symko of the University of Utah has added a new method which may be a very useful addition. He has developed a system for converting heat into electricity using piezo-electric cells. The system consists of resonator cylinders which conduct air to produce sound. According to an article in Professional Engineering, "When heat is applied the moving air is converted into a single frequency sound by a thermo-acoustic prime mover". The sound is then converted to electricity using piezo-electric technology, which converts the pressure from the sound into electricity.

There are no moving parts and so we could have sound powered engines in the next few years.

It will be nice to have an alternative to rotation to generate power on a large scale. Will sound provide the alternative ?