Power generation from low grade waste heat using thermoelectric generator

Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy, School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, RMIT University, Bundoora East Campus-3083, Australia

Abstract

Thermoelectric technology is thought to be a great solution in near future for producing electrical power and recovering low grade waste heat to cut the cost of power generation because of its consistency and eco-friendly affability. Though commercial accessibility of TEG is available currently but heat to electricity conversion efficiency is still low and cost of the module is reasonably high. It’s essential to use the modules competently which is strongly depends on suitable heat exchanger design and selection of proper operating conditions. In this work, TEG module has been selected from the commercially available modules with efficiency of 1.91% for the targeted low-grade waste heat temperature of T_h=90°C and T_c=15°C which validated by experiment. Mathematical model has been proposed to simulate TEG based power generation system; the model can predict maximum net power, choose optimum operating conditions and dimensions of heat exchanger. Lab scale design with channel length 1 m, width 0.08 m and gap size 9 mm which is suitable for 50 TEG module (4 mm x 4 mm) have been simulated using proposed mathematical model. For above temperature range, predicted optimum net power was 76.45 W with optimum flow rate 0.94 L/s (56.4 L/min). This lab scale setup will be used for experimental validation of the proposed mathematical model. The obtained results from experiments and simulation are closely matched.