HEPHAISTOS (Innovative syntHEsis and Protection against Ageing for Improved Skutterudite-based Thermoelectric generatOrS)

Thermoelectric generators that can convert heat into electricity could help to harvest waste heat released in many industrial processes and empower remote sensors and actuators in extreme environments. Nevertheless, a wide deployment of those devices is limited by their poor performance and/or high cost.

The HEPHAISTOS project targets the manufacturing of low-cost and high-power-density, skutterudite-based thermoelectric modules, by using an energy-efficient process and low-cost reactants for the synthesis of the materials, by optimizing the module assembly and by protecting them against oxidation using innovative coatings.

The study of the module ageing under operating conditions and the determination of the underlying mechanisms will provide valuable guidelines to improve their lifetime.