• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.488-495
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• 2009

This paper proposes a new AC/DC RPPB(Resonant Piezo-Powered Boost) converter for energy harvesting using a piezoelectric device which converts mechanical vibration energy to electrical energy. The AC/DC RPPB converter can operate with only the harvested energy without an additional power conversion circuit for switching circuit and transfer energy to a load of which the voltage is higher than piezoelectric voltage. With the review of published topologies of the converter for energy harvesting, the operation principle of the AC/DC RPPB converter, and the results of PSPICE simulation and experiment are presented to prove the feasibility of the new converter for the energy harvesting.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1131-1138
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• 2015

This study presents an input-powered high-efficiency interface circuit for energy harvesting systems, and introduces a zero standby power design to reduce power consumption significantly while removing the external power supply. This interface circuit is composed of two stages. The first stage voltage doubler uses a positive feedback control loop to improve considerably the conversion speed and efficiency, and boost the output voltage. The second stage active diode adopts a common-grid operational amplifier (op-amp) to remove the influence of offset voltage in the traditional comparator, which eliminates leakage current and broadens bandwidth with low power consumption. The system supplies itself with the harvested energy, which enables it to enter the zero standby mode near the zero crossing points of the input current. Thereafter, high system efficiency and stability are achieved, which saves power consumption. The validity and feasibility of this design is verified by the simulation results based on the 65 nm CMOS process. The minimum input voltage is down to 0.3 V, the maximum voltage efficiency is 99.6% with a DC output current of 75.6 μA, the maximum power efficiency is 98.2% with a DC output current of 40.4 μA, and the maximum output power is 60.48 μW. The power loss of the entire interface circuit is only 18.65 μW, among which, the op-amp consumes only 2.65 μW.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.29-36
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• 2022

Existing IoT sensor nodes operate by receiving energy from a battery. But due to the characteristics of sensor nodes that are widely distributed for collecting various information, there is a disadvantage that the battery needs to be periodically replaced. In order to overcome this disadvantage, energy can be harvested from sunlight or high-temperature steam through an energy harvesting system. However, since the harvested power is quite limited, it is difficult to use applications that require instantaneous high power such as communication. We propose the design of the high-power energy harvesting system where a switch control unit compensates for the limited harvested energy with the energy storage device such as a capacitor. To verify the proposed system, an energy harvesting system based on sunlight was implemented, and we confirmed the maximum supply power to the application and the maximum supply time according to capacity of the energy storage device.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.215-223
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• 2015

Energy harvesting technique is an energy charging technique for communication device in energy-constrained environment. Recently, energy harvesting technique that harvests energy from wireless radio frequency signal is proposed. Representatively, there are time switching technique and power splitting technique. This paper proposes an optimal harvesting time allocation scheme in a wireless cognitive relay network when secondary user relay uses energy harvesting technique to transmit information. Secondary user relay receives information and energy simultaneously from the secondary user source's signal via time switching technique. We aim to maximize the instantaneous throughput by optimizing harvesting time of the secondary user relay. Simulation results show that using optimized harvesting time gets larger instantaneous throughput compared to using constant harvesting time.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.294-303
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• 2016

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the profitability of four selective mechanization systems in rice cultivation. Methods: Field experiments were conducted in the farmers' field during the wet season (June to November) of 2015 in Bangladesh. Mechanization systems were applied to evaluate four different selective levels (treatment) in eleven consequent operations. Seedlings were raised in a traditional seedbed and trays for manual and mechanical transplanting, respectively. Land preparation, irrigation, fertilizer, pesticide, carrying, and threshing and cleaning operations were performed using the same method in all the experimental plots. The mechanical options in the transplanting, weeding, and harvesting operations were changed. The mechanization systems were $S_1$ = hand transplanting + hand weeding + harvesting by sickle, $S_2$ = mechanical transplanting + Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) weeder + reaper, $S_3$ = mechanical transplanting + BRRI power weeder + reaper, and $S_4$ = mechanical transplanting + herbicide + reaper. This experiment was performed in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Power tiller, rice transplanter, BRRI weeder, BRRI power weeder, self-propelled reaper, BRRI open drum thresher, and BRRI winnower were used in the respective operations. Accordingly, the techno-economic performances of the different technologies were calculated and compared with those of the traditional system. Results: The mechanically transplanted plot produced 6-10% more yield than the hand transplanted plot because of the use of tender-aged seedlings. Mechanical transplanting reduced 61% labor and 18% cost compared to manual transplanting. The BRRI weeder, BRRI power weeder, and herbicide application reduced 74, 91, and 98% labor, respectively. The latter also saved 72, 63, and 82% cost, respectively, compared to hand weeding. Herbicide application reduced the substantial amount of labor and cost in the weeding operation. Mechanical harvesting also saved 96% labor and 72% cost compared to the traditional method of harvesting using sickle. Selective mechanization saved 15-17% input cost compared to the traditional method of rice cultivation. Conclusions: Mechanical transplanting with the safe use of herbicide and harvesting by reaper is the most cost- and labor-saving operation. The method might be the recommended set of selective mechanization for enhancing productivity.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.206-211
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• 2021

This paper proposes a Self-Reset Zero-Current Switching (ZCS) Circuit for thermoelectric energy harvesting. The Self-Reset ZCS circuit minimizes the operating current consumed by the voltage comparator, thereby reduces the power consumption of the energy harvesting circuit and improves the energy conversion efficiency by adding the self-reset function to the comparator. The Self-Reset ZCS circuit shows 3.4% of improvement in energy efficiency compared to the energy harvesting system with the conventional analog comparator ZCS for the output/input voltage ratio of 5.5 as a result of circuit simulation. The proposed circuit is useful for improving the performance of the wearable and bio-health-related harvesting circuits, where low-power and energy-efficient thermoelectric energy harvesting is needed.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.33-38
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• 2015

PURPOSES : The purpose of this paper is to investigate the application of thermoelectric technology to concrete structures for harvesting solar energy that would otherwise be wasted. In various fields of research, thermoelectric technology using a thermoelectric module is being investigated for utilizing solar energy. METHODS: In our experiment, a halogen lamp was used to produce heat energy instead of the solar heat. A data logger was used to record the generated voltage over time from the thermoelectric module mounted on a concrete specimen. In order to increase the efficiency of energy harvesting, various factors such as color, architecture, and the ability to prevent heat absorption by the concrete surface were investigated for the placement of the thermoelectric module. RESULTS : The thermoelectric module produced a voltage using the temperature difference between the lower and upper sides of the module. When the concrete specimen was coated with an aluminum foil, a high electric power was measured. In addition, for the power generated at low temperatures, it was confirmed that the voltage was generated steadily. CONCLUSIONS: Thermoelectric technology for energy harvesting can be applied to concrete structures for generating electric power. The generated electricity can be used to power sensors used in structure monitoring in the future.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.75-80
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• 2012

In this paper, a new energy harvesting technology using stray electric field of an electric power line is presented. It is found that energy can be harvested and stored in the storage capacitor that is connected to a cylindrical aluminum foil wrapped around a commercial insulated 220 V power line. The average current flowing into 47 ${\mu}F$ storage capacitor is about 4.53 ${\mu}A$ with 60 cm long cylindrical aluminum foil, and it is possible to operate wireless sensor node to transmit RF data every 42 seconds. The harvested average power is about 47 ${\mu}W$ in this case. Since the energy can be harvested without removing insulating sheath, it is believed that the proposed harvesting technology can be applied to power the sensor nodes in wireless ubiquitous sensor network and smart grid system.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.17-30
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• 2021

This is an investigation for a more electric regional aircraft, considering the ATR 72 aircraft as an example and the electrification of its four double slotted flaps, which were estimated to require an energy of 540 Wh for takeoff and 1780 Wh for landing, with a maximum power requirement of 35.6 kW during landing. An analysis and evaluation of three energy harvesting systems has been carried out, which led to the recommendation of a combination of a piezoelectric and a thermoelectric harvesting system providing 65% and 17%, respectively, of the required energy for the actuators of the four flaps. The remaining energy may be provided by a solar energy harvesting photovoltaic system, which was calculated to have a maximum capacity of 12.8 kWh at maximum solar irradiance. It was estimated that a supercapacitor of 232 kg could provide the energy storage and power required for the four flaps, which proved to be 59% of the required weight of a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery while the supercapacitor also constitutes a safer option.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.735-737
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• 2017

An Off grid or remote solar electric systems are an energy supply to our home or to our companies without the utility of Grid at all. Off grid solar systems are very important for those who live in remote locations especially for developing countries where getting the electric grid is extremely expensive, inconvenient or for those who doesn't need to pay a monthly bill with the electric bill in general. The main critical components of any solar power system or renewable energy harvesting systems are the energy storage systems and its charge controller system. Energy storage systems are the essential integral part of a solar energy harvesting system and in general for all renewable energy harvesting systems. To provide an optimal solution of both high power density and high energy density at the same time we have to use hybrid energy storage systems (HESS), that combine two or more energy storage technologies with complementary characteristics. In this present work, design and simulation we use two storage systems supercapacitor for high power density and lithium based battery for high energy density. Here the system incorporates fast-response supercapacitors to provide power to manage solar smoothing and uses a battery for load shifting. On this paper discuss that the total energy throughout of the battery is much reduced and the typical thermal stresses caused by high discharge rate responses are mitigated by integrating supercapacitors with the battery storage system. In addition of the above discussion the off grid solar electric energy harvesting presented in this research paper includes battery and supercapacitor management system, MPPT (maximum power point tracking) system and back/boost convertors. On this present work the entire model of off grid electric energy harvesting system and all other functional blocks of that system is implemented in MATLAB Simulink.