Such systems potentially offer an alternative means of disposing of waste heat from plants that burn fossil fuels and/or nuclear energy.
In the middle part of the twentieth century the thermo-electric generator was often used in place of galvanic batteries.
[2] In 2014 researchers demonstrated a prototype system that uses copper electrodes and ammonia as the electrolyte.
The device converted some 29 percent of the battery's chemical energy into electricity.
[1] Volatilization of ammonia from the spent anolyte by heating (simulating distillation), and re-addition of this ammonia to the spent catholyte chamber with subsequent operation of this chamber as the anode (to regenerate copper on the other electrode), produced a maximum power density of 60 ± 3 W m−2, with an average discharge energy efficiency of 29% (electrical energy captured versus chemical energy in the starting solutions).