International Journal on Hands-on Science [ISSN (print): 1646-8937; (online): 1646-8945], Vol. 3, Number 1, pp. 32-36, March 2010. Miniature Thermoelectric Power Plant António Moreira, Ricardo Freitas, João Sepúlveda and João Sena Esteves Department of Industrial Electronics University of Minho, Campus of Azurém, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal ant0ni0_m0reira@ hotmail.com, ricardo_filipefreitas@hotmail.com, mjs@dei.uminho.pt, sena@dei.uminho.pt Abstract. This paper describes a miniature thermoelectric power plant made with the boiler and the water pump from an old starch iron. It also uses a computer cooling fan, which serves as electric power generator. The boiler vaporizes the water it receives from the water pump. Then, the steam is injected on the turbine of the fan, making it twirl. The voltage generated by the fan is enough to lighten a couple of LEDs. A wooden case with a chimney encloses all the referred devices. Keywords. Electrical Power Systems, Thermoelectric Power Plant. 1. Introduction Electric energy availability has become of primordial importance in modern societies. In fact, it is so important that its fail can stop a whole city: modern trains, hospitals and industries, for example, would stop without electric energy. There are several ways of producing electric energy (for example, through hydroelectric, thermoelectric or wind power plants [1,2]). Thermoelectric power plants have several environmental issues [3], but they are heavily used around the world. This paper describes the working principle of thermal power plants and presents a miniature steam thermoelectric power plant (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2) made with old starch iron parts. The miniature made its first appearance at Oficinas de Electricidade (Electricity Workshops), integrating part of Robótica 2006 – Festival Nacional de Robótica (National Robotics Festival), which happened in Guimarães, Portugal, between April 28 and May 1, 2006. 2. Thermal power plants Thermal power plants generate electricity by means of combustion: coal, oil or natural gas is burned, heating a boiler to produce steam. The steam is fed into a steam turbine, causing rotational movement. An electrical generator, connected to the turbine shaft, converts the rotational movement into electrical energy. The steam coming from the turbine is then condensed and the resulting water is fed into the boiler, again. Fig. 3 shows a diagram of a real-world thermal power plant [4]. Figure 1. Miniature thermoelectric power plant at Oficinas de Electricidade (Electricity Workshops), in 2006. Figure 2. Top view of the miniature.