Harnessing thermoacoustics for waste heat recovery

Environmental concerns and economic incentives have created a push for a reduction in emissions and an increase in efficiency. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 20 to 50% of the energy consumed in manufacturing processes is lost in some form to waste heat. The purpose of this study is to review the waste heat recovery technologies currently available in both commercial and research applications to determine how thermoacoustics may serve a role in furthering the use of waste heat recovery units. A literary review of the most common waste heat recovery units was compiled to determine the advantages and disadvantages of the different technologies by comparing components and their governing processes. An existing model of a thermoacoustic converter (TAC) was reviewed and a conceptual analysis written to suggest improvements for future experimental designs.

Name thesis:degree_name

Bachelor

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Aguilar, Alex.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Sili Deng.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130213

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/130213