TY - CONF A1 - Waske, Anja A1 - Fähler, Sebastian A1 - Fähler, Sebastian T1 - Thermomagnetic generators with magnetocaloric materials for harvesting low grade waste heat N2 - To date, there are very few technologies available for the conversion of low-temperature waste heat into electricity. Thermomagnetic generators are one approach proposed more than a century ago. Such devices are based on a cyclic change of magnetization with temperature. This switches a magnetic flux and, according to Faraday’s law, induces a voltage. Here we give an overview on our research, covering both materials and systems. We demonstrate that guiding the magnetic flux with an appropriate topology of the magnetic circuit improves the performance of thermomagnetic generators by orders of magnitude. Through a combination of experiments and simulations, we show that a pretzel-like topology results in a sign reversal of the magnetic flux. This avoids the drawbacks of previous designs, namely, magnetic stray fields, hysteresis and complex geometries of the thermomagnetic material. Though magnetocaloric materials had been the first choice also for thermomagnetic generators, they require some different properties, which we illustrate with Ashby plots for materials selection. Experimentally we compare La-Fe-Co-Si and Gd plates in the same thermomagnetic generator. Furthermore, we discuss corrosion and deterioration under cyclic use is a severe problem occurring during operation. To amend this, composite plates using polymer as a matrix have been suggested previously. T2 - Dresden Days of Magnetocalorics CY - Dresden, Germany DA - 13.11.2023 KW - Thermomagnetic material KW - Waste heat recovery KW - Generator PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-58865 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -