Alphabet Energy (Alphabet) is a Hayward, California, company that develops thermoelectric materials and products that convert waste heat to electric power.

Alphabet’s web site provides this overview of the concept of thermoelectrics:

Thermoelectrics are solid-state semiconductors that turn heat into electricity. They generate power cleanly and with few or no moving parts from a difference in temperature. They are like solar panels that use heat–instead of light–as an energy source. Alphabet is revolutionizing the way we think about both thermoelectrics and the prototypical functional material, silicon. We have developed and licensed the key technologies to use silicon as a thermoelectric generator.

Alphabet owns at least five U.S. patent applications relating to its thermoelectric materials.  U.S. Application Publication No. 2011/0114146 (’146 Application) is entitled “Uniwafer thermoelectric modules” and directed to a single wafer device (100) including functionalized n-type regions (113) and p-type regions (115) with shunts (123) formed overlying those regions from the front side (102) of the wafer substrate (101).

A partial portion of wafer material (101A) is removed from the back side (103) of the substrate.  One or more conductor shunts (125) are formed overlying the exposed n-type regions (113) and p-type regions (115) from the back side (103). 

According to the ’146 Application, this device can be used to output power from thermoelectrics:

As an implementation of the present invention, the two external electric leads 131 and 132 can [be] used as two electrodes for outputting electric power induced by thermoelectric effect when the single-wafer device 100 is subjecting the conductor shunts 123 at the front side 102 and conductors 125 at the back side 103 to a temperature gradient.

Alphabet’s other patent applications relate to nanostructures and fabrication processes for nanostructure thermoelectric devices.  They are U.S. Application Publication Nos. 2012/0152295, 2012/0247527 (’527 Application), 2012/0295074, and 2012/0319082. 

The ’527 Application is entitled “Electrode structures for arrays of nanostructures and methods thereof” and directed to a thermoelectric device comprising an array (110) of nanowires (120) with spacings (150) between them.  The spacings (150) may contain fill materials (160) having a low thermal conductivity.

An electrode structure (195) is formed on the array (110) of nanowires (120) by covering protruding segments (135) with semiconductor contact materials (170).  A contact layer (174) provides electrical connection between each of the protruding segments (135), and a shunt (180) may be formed to provide an electrical connection between the contact layer (174) and other devices in the thermoelectric device.

According to this Greentech Media piece, thermoelectrics is a “brilliant pursuit” which no one has brought to market economically at scale yet.  Perhaps Alphabet Energy will be the first.

Adura Technologies (Adura) is a San Francisco company that provides wireless lighting controls and energy management systems.  Adura was recently acquired by a large Atlanta-based commercial lighting company called Acuity Brands.

Adura’s patent portfolio includes at three U.S. patents and at least five published patent applications.  The patents are U.S. Patent Nos. 7,839,017 (’017 Patent); 7,925,384 (’384 Patent); and 8,275,471 (’471 Patent).

The ’017 Patent is entitled “Systems and methods for remotely controlling an electrical load” and directed to an adapted switch (205) including an adapter (225) and switch (105). 

The adapter (225), in turn, includes a sensor (305), a communications interface (310), and a power unit (315), which provides power to the sensor (305) and the communications interface (310).

The sensor (305) is configured to detect a state of the switch (105), and the communications interface (310) wirelessly transmits a signal based on the detected state of the switch (105) to a controller (230), which controls a load device (110) based on the signal.

According to the ’017 Patent, the switch (105) may be electrically isolated from the load device so physical manipulation of the switch does not affect the electrical load with respect to the load device (110).  Because the state of the switch (110) can be detected by the sensor (305) using a low voltage signal, this configuration requires very little power.

The ’384 Patent is entitled “Location-based provisioning of wireless control systems” and directed to methods of provisioning wireless control comprising the step (210) of broadcasting a message from a computing device (120) to a communication network (100) including one or more control devices (130A-C).

In step 220, a response is received from a control device (130A).  In the next step (230), a “scene” is assigned to the control device 130A.  A scene is defined by the ’384 Patent to be a set of one or more specifications concerning operation of light fixtures associated with the control device (130A).

In step 240, a scene command is generated based on the assigned scene.  The scene command is then transmitted to the control device (130A) in step 250.

The ’471 Patent is entitled “Sensor interface for wireless control” and relates to systems and methods for enabling wireless communication with wired sensors.

Adura also has invested in its branding and enforced one of its trademark registrations back in 2009.

According to this Greentech Media story, this is the first in what could be a “wave of acquisitions” in the “still-nascent” networked lighting space.

Calxeda is an Austin, Texas, company that develops data center efficiency solutions.  The company’s EnergyCore technology provides power-efficient data center architecture for large computer environments such as web servers, media streaming infrastructure and cloud storage.

Calxeda owns at least one U.S. patent and three pending patent applications.  U.S. Patent No. 8,180,996 is entitled “Distributed computing system with universal address system and method” and directed to a distributed computing system having enhanced distributed storage and a universal address system (’996 Patent).

Granted in May 2012, the ’996 Patent teaches computer units featuring ARM processing cores, which Calxeda’s web site describes as “ultra-efficient” and the “heart” of the EnergyCore architecture.  According to this Greentech Media piece on the company, ARM chips are common in the cell phone market and consume considerably less power than Intel chips.

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0103391 (’391 Application) relates to Calxeda’s fabric switch for interconnecting multiple EnergyCore systems.  Entitled “System and method for high-performance, low-power data center interconnect fabric,” the ’391 Application is directed to a switch and switch fabric system for routing data through a plurality of nodes.

FIG. 5A illustrates an exemplary switch (900) having four areas of interest (910a-d) where area 910a corresponds to Ethernet packets between the CPUs and Media Access Controls (MACs), area 910b corresponds to Ethernet frames at the Ethernet physical interface at the inside MACs, area 910c corresponds to Ethernet frames at the Ethernet physical interface at the outside MAC, and area 910d corresponds to Ethernet packets between the processor of routing header (901) and outside MAC (904).

The operating system device drivers of A9 cores (905) manage and control Inside Eth0 (902) and Inside Eth1 MAC (903).  The device driver of management processor (906) manages and controls Inside Eth2 MAC (907).  Outside Eth MAC (904) is not controlled by a device driver, but instead is configured to pass all frames with any filtering for network monitoring.

The ’391 Application describes the asymmetric MAC architecture as follows:

The inside MACs have the Ethernet physical signaling interface into the routing header processor, and the outside MAC has an Ethernet packet interface into the routing header processor.  Thus the MAC IP is re-purposed for inside MACs and outside MACs, and what would normally be the physical signaling for the MAC to feed into the switch is leveraged.

According to the ’391 Application, the invention reduces the size and power requirements of data centers.  Specifically, the invention fills a need for “a system and method for packet switching functionality focused on network aggregation that reduces the size and power requirements of typical systems while reducing cost all at the same time.”

The above-mentioned Greentech Media article says that Calxeda will be scaling up and expanding to new markets thanks to a recent $55 million funding round.

Cyclone Power Technologies, a Pompano Beach, Florida company, focuses on solving our dependence on fossil fuels with its heat regenerative external combustion engines.  In a recent press release Cyclone announced that it has received a patent in South Africa for its waste energy recycling engine called the WHE, or the Waste Heat Engine.

The South African patent issued from the national phase filing of World Intellectual Property Organization International Patent Number WO 2010/062375 A2, entitled “Waste Heat Engine” (‘375 Patent).  The ‘375 Patent, in turn, corresponds to U.S. Patent Application No. 2010/0107637 also entitled “Waste Heat Engine”.

The ’375 Patent describes a Rankine Cycle heat regenerative external combustion engine, also known as a Schoell Cycle engine.  The engine is basically a modern day, high-tech, steam engine with a radial arrangement of cylinders.

Figure 10, below, represents the Waste Heat Engine (WHE) as shown in the ’375 Patent.

According to the ’375 Patent:

Referring to FIG. 3 [below], each cylinder (20) in the radial arrangement includes a reciprocating piston assembly (50), including piston head (52) that moves in a reciprocating motion within the cylinder (20) through a full piston stroke.

Figure 3

This engine works when steam enters the top of each of the six radially arranged cylinders (20) and pushs the pistons (54) downward in sequence. 

The rotating action of the pistons connected through the spyder bearing (60) turns the crank shaft (24) in an orbiting motion around the central longitudinal axis of the crankshaft (24). 

Steam escapes the cylinders through exhaust ports and is collected in a condensing unit (not shown) where it is turned back into water.

The engine does not use motor oil as water is both the working fluid and the lubricant.  The water system is a closed system, meaning the water does not need to be replaced or topped off.

The engine can run on any source of heat, including waste heat from industrial sources.  Industrial sources could include glass melting furnaces, cement kilns, incinerators, boilers, steel furnaces, and engine exhaust. 

Captured and reused waste heat puts waste to work, is an emission free substitute for fuels or electricity, and can be incorporated into existing infrastructure.

Cyclone recently announced a Teaming Agreement with Enginuity Energy LLC, an innovator and manufacturer of biomass gasifiers.  The agreement describes the companies’ “desire to develop and advance the commercialization of a modular 35kWe to 250kWe biomass-to-power generating system.”

Enginuity’s technology converts biomass into thermal energy that can be used by the WHE to produce electricity.

To view a short video on how the Cyclone WHE works, click here.

David Gibbs is a contributor to Green Patent Blog.  David is currently in his third and final year at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.  He received his undergraduate degree in Geology from the University of California, Berkeley.