how can i convert heat energy of water into electrical energy? use of a semiconductor? the most efficient way?

Question

i dont want to use steam. the energy must pass from liquid water to electrical energy directly. thermocouples?

Answer 1

A thermocouple works but I dont know of any real large scale aplications to get usefull ammounts of energy from them. Most thermocouples are not powerfull enough to do much more than run thermostats.

One possiblity would be to use the water movement caused by the warm water rising to the "top" of a cooler body of water (or mixing of coolder and warm water bodies. Of course that would require large amounts of nearby cooler water and a natural current caused by the temp differences. That water movement could be harnessed by a turbine of some sort. Again I cant think of a real world application where this has been done on a large scale. I can imagine that such force could be put into a self contained system with the input of colder water (at in deep cooler water) into the heat source and exiting through a turbine as it rises to the surface, in conjunction with one way valves. However a resource of cooler water would be needed.

Answer 2

Have the steam turn a turbine which runs a generator. Thermocouples would do it.

Answer 3

Yep, the only thing that I can think of is a thermocouple.