Thermoelectric Power Generation by Harvesting the Waste Heat From a Car Engine

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jong K. Cha ◽  
Thomas Y. Lee ◽  
Yong X. Gan
Keyword(s):  
Energy Conversion ◽  
Bismuth Telluride ◽  
Heat Sink ◽  
Thermoelectric Generator ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Coolant Temperature ◽  
Maximum Output ◽  
Maximum Voltage

Internal combustion (IC) engines typically have an efficiency of less than 35%. This is largely due to the fact that much of the energy dissipates into waste heat. However, the waste heat may be converted into electricity by using energy conversion modules made from bismuth telluride. In this work, it is demonstrated that electricity can be generated from waste heat due to the difference in temperatures. The thermal to electrical energy conversion is achieved by using a self-assembled thermoelectric generator (TEG). The TEG (thermoelectric generator) uses two different types of metallic compound semiconductors, known as n-typed and p-typed, to create voltage when the junctions are held at different temperatures. The work mechanism is based on the Seebeck effect. In this study, the TEGs are made from bismuth telluride (Bi-Te) with relatively high energy conversion efficiencies. In addition, it is readily available. The installation location of the TEG is studied. For testing purposes and convenience, the top of the radiator of a 1990 Mazda Miata car was chosen. The TEG and an aluminum finned heat sink were placed in order on the top of the radiator. Thermal paste was applied to both surfaces and secured with zip ties. A vent was cut on the hood of the car to promote airflow between the fins. Appropriate electrical wiring allowed the unit to output to a digital multi-meter which was located within the car for operator to take data. It is found from the measured results that 0.948 V is the maximum output and the average voltage is 0.751 V. The highest voltage came from driving mountain paths due to the heat sink and coolant temperature being higher than nominal. We estimate that placing an insulator between the heat sink and TEG would push the maximum voltage over 1.0 V. During the cool down phase, the TEG produced electricity continuously with a maximum voltage of 0.9 V right after engine cutoff. The voltage decreased to about 0.6 V within 40 minutes. It is found that the relationship between the temperature difference and output voltage is linear.

scholarly journals Design and Optimization of an Integrated Turbo-Generator and Thermoelectric Generator for Vehicle Exhaust Electrical Energy Recovery

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 3134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prasert Nonthakarn ◽  
Mongkol Ekpanyapong ◽  
Udomkiat Nontakaew ◽  
Erik Bohez
Keyword(s):  
Diesel Engines ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Thermoelectric Generator ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Vehicle Exhaust ◽  
Gasoline Engines ◽  
Design And Optimization ◽  
Charging Station ◽  
Turbo Generator

The performance of turbo-generators significantly depends on the design of the power turbine. In addition, the thermoelectric generator can convert waste heat into another source of energy. This research aims to design and optimize an integrated turbo-generator and thermoelectric generator for diesel engines. The goal is to generate electricity from the vehicle exhaust gas. Electrical energy is derived from generators using the flow, pressure, and temperature of exhaust gases from combustion engines and heat-waste. In the case of turbo-generators and thermoelectric generators, the system automatically adjusts the power provided by an inverter. Typically, vehicle exhausts are discarded to the environment. Hence, the proposed conversion to electrical energy will reduce the alternator charging system. This work focuses on design optimization of a turbo-generator and thermoelectric generator for 2500 cc. diesel engines, due to their widespread usage. The concept, however, can also be applied to gasoline engines. Moreover, this model is designed for a hybrid vehicle. Charging during running will save time at the charging station. The optimization by variable van angles of 40°, 50°, 62°, 70°, and 80° shows that the best output power is 62°, which is identical to that calculated. The maximum power outputted from the designed prototype was 1262 watts when operating with an exhaust mass flow rate of 0.1024 kg/s at 3400 rpm (high performance of the engine). This research aims to reduce fuel consumption and reduce pollution from the exhaust, especially for hybrid vehicles.

Research for Combustor Based on Micro-Thermoelectric Generator Device

2010 ◽  
Vol 97-101 ◽  
pp. 2509-2513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Yin Song ◽  
Xian Cheng Wang ◽  
Mei Qin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Thermoelectric Generator ◽  
Simulation Models ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
High Energy ◽  
High Energy Density ◽  
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems ◽  
Thermal Exchange ◽  
Thermal Transfer ◽  
Micro Thermoelectric Generator ◽  
Micro Combustor

Micro-thermoelectric generator device (MTGD) is used to supply lasting electrical energy for Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). As an important part of MTGD, micro-combustor with high energy density has direct influence on the total electrical generating efficiency for MTG. D In this paper, Considering some parameters such as material, dimension, flux of fuel and shape of thermal conductive tunnel for micro-combustor, some simulation models such as thermal transfer, combustion for micro-combustor were built up, and some simulation results were got. Based upon, optimized micro flat combustors were designed and tested. The experiment results illustrated that the conduct efficiency of micro-combustor was well controlled by adjusting heat flux, and the combustor with shape of zigzag combustion tunnel has high thermal exchange efficiency in experiment models. By adjusting flux of fuel and the structure of micro premixed combustor, the heat loss of MTGD was reduced and output power was improved in a degree.

Thermoelectric Transport in Silicon Germanium Nanocomposite

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hohyun Lee ◽  
Daryoosh Vashaee ◽  
Xiaowei Wang ◽  
Giri Joshi ◽  
Gaohua Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Energy Conversion ◽  
Silicon Germanium ◽  
Figure Of Merit ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Energy Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Thermoelectric Effects ◽  
Thermoelectric Transport ◽  
Potential Applications

Direct energy conversion between heat and electrical energy based on thermoelectric effects is attractive for potential applications in waste heat recovery and environmentally-friendly refrigeration. The energy conversion efficiency depends on the dimensionless figure of merit of thermoelectric materials, ZT, which is proportional to the electrical conductivity, the square of the Seebeck coefficient, and the inverse of the thermal conductivity. Currently, the low ZT values of available materials restrict the applications of this technology. However, significant enhancements in ZT were recently reported in nanostructured materials such as superlattices mainly due to their low thermal conductivities. According to recent studies, the reduced thermal conductivity of nanostructures is attributed to the large number of interfaces at which phonons are scattered. Based on this idea, nanocomposites are expected to have a lower thermal conductivity than their bulk counterparts with low fabrication cost just by mixing nano sized particles. In this work, we will discuss mechanisms of thermoelectric transport via modeling and provide experimental evidence on the enhancement of thermoelectric figure of merit in SiGe-based nanocomposites.

Highly efficient functional GexPb1−xTe based thermoelectric alloys

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (37) ◽  
pp. 20120-20126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaniv Gelbstein ◽  
Joseph Davidow
Keyword(s):  
Energy Conversion ◽  
Fuel Consumption ◽  
Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Thermoelectric Materials ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Electrical Power ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Energy Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Efficient Implementation ◽  
Thermoelectric Devices

Methods for enhancement of the direct thermal to electrical energy conversion efficiency, upon development of advanced thermoelectric materials, are constantly investigated mainly for an efficient implementation of thermoelectric devices in automotive vehicles, for utilizing the waste heat generated in such engines into useful electrical power and thereby reduction of the fuel consumption and CO2 emission levels.

Common Currency for System Integration of High Intensity Energy Subsystems

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Pratt ◽  
David J. Moorhouse
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Sink ◽  
High Intensity ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
System Level ◽  
Level Energy ◽  
Common Currency

Aerospace vehicle design has progressed in an evolutionary manner, with certain discrete changes such as turbine engines replacing propellers for higher speeds. The evolution has worked very well for commercial aircraft because the major components can be optimized independently. This is not true for many military configurations which require a more integrated approach. In addition, the introduction of aspects for which there is no pre-existing database requires special attention. Examples of subsystem that have no pre-existing data base include directed energy weapons (DEW) such as high power microwaves (HPM) and high energy lasers (HEL). These devices are inefficient, therefore a large portion of the energy required to operate the device is converted to waste heat and must be transferred to a suitable heat sink. For HPM, the average heat load during one ‘shot’ is on the same order as traditional subsystems and thus designing a thermal management system is possible. The challenge is transferring the heat from the HPM device to a heat sink. The power density of each shot could be hundreds of megawatts. This heat must be transferred from the HPM beam dump to a sink. The heat transfer must occur at a rate that will support shots in the 10–100Hz range. For HEL systems, in addition to the high intensity, there are substantial system level thermal loads required to provide an ‘infinite magazine.’ Present models are inadequate to analyze these problems, current systems are unable to sustain the energy dissipation required and the high intensity heat fluxes applied over a very short duration phenomenon is not well understood. These are examples of potential future vehicle integration challenges. This paper addresses these and other subsystems integration challenges using a common currency for vehicle optimization. Exergy, entropy generation minimization, and energy optimization are examples of methodologies that can enable the creation of energy optimized systems. These approaches allow the manipulation of fundamental equations governing thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics to produce minimized irreversibilities at the vehicle, subsystem and device levels using a common currency. Applying these techniques to design for aircraft system-level energy efficiency would identify not only which subsystems are inefficient but also those that are close to their maximum theoretical efficiency while addressing diverse system interaction and optimal subsystem integration. Such analyses would obviously guide researchers and designers to the areas having the highest payoff and enable departures from the evolutionary process and create a breakthrough design.

Heat Sink Design for Thermoelectric Generation in Spindle Unit

2013 ◽  
Vol 365-366 ◽  
pp. 285-288
Author(s):  
Sheng Li ◽  
Qing Hui Zeng ◽  
Xin Hua Yao ◽  
Jian Zhong Fu
Keyword(s):  
Heat Sink ◽  
Alternative Energy ◽  
Thermoelectric Generator ◽  
Rotation Speed ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Heat Sinks ◽  
Thermoelectric Generation ◽  
Promising Alternative ◽  
Spindle Unit ◽  
Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting

Thermoelectric energy harvesting is emerging as a promising alternative energy source to drive wireless sensors in mechanical, civil, and aerospace engineering systems. Typically, the waste heat from spindle units of machine tools creates obvious potential for thermoelectric generation. The structure of heat sinks on a thermoelectric generator has a great effect on the output voltage of the thermoelectric generator due to the temperature difference between hot and cold sides induced by heat transfer, so several typical structures of heat sinks are studied under different rotation speed of the spindle. According to the simulation study, the thermal resistance of heat sinks was presented. In the experiment, the output voltages of a thermoelectric generator were measured under different rotation speed with different structures of heat sinks. Experiment and simulation shows that the two pipes structure of the heat sink can help the generator to produce more power.

Novel Two-Stage Electrical Energy Generators for Highly-Variable and Low-Speed Linear or Rotary Input Motions

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jahangir S. Rastegar ◽  
Richard T. Murray
Keyword(s):  
Energy Conversion ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Energy Conversion Efficiency ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Constant Frequency ◽  
Low Speed ◽  
Potential Applications

A novel class of two-stage, vibration-based electrical energy generators is presented for linear or rotary input motions in applications which the input speed is relatively low and varies significantly over time such as wind mills, turbo-machinery used to harvest tidal flows, devices for harnessing coastal wave energy, and the like. Current technologies use magnet-and-coil based electrical generators in such machinery. However, to make the generation cycle efficient, gearing or other similar mechanisms must be used to increase the input speed. Variable speed-control mechanisms are also usually needed to achieve high energy conversion efficiency. Additionally, in many applications, such as those where energy is to be harvested from very low frequency oscillations of a platform such as a buoy or a ship, the use of speed increasing mechanisms such as gearing or the like is impractical. In this paper, a novel class of two-stage electrical energy generators that could operate with very low speed and highly variable input rotations and/or oscillations is described. The first stage consists of simple linkage mechanisms, which are used to excite vibratory elements. These two-stage generators are designed to convert low-speed and highly variable input rotations and oscillations to relatively high and constant frequency vibratory motions, which are then used to generate electrical energy using mechanical to electrical energy conversion devices such as piezoelectric elements. The design of a number of such two-stage generators together with a discussion of their potential applications is presented.

scholarly journals Cuk Converter for Waste Heat Recovery from Automobile Engine using Thermoelectric Generator with Air as Coolant

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 249-252
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Heat Recovery ◽  
Waste Heat Recovery ◽  
Thermoelectric Generator ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Combustion Engine ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Internal Combustion ◽  
Heat Energy ◽  
Maximum Power

The growing concern on energy conservation and reduction of carbon footprint has led to a lot of inventions and innovations in terms of energy-efficient technologies in all the energy consuming applications. The automobile sector is a crucial zone where these technologies have a major role to play due to the sheer abundance of the number of automobiles.Many small refinements, alterations and innovations are happening in this field which has led to furthermore energy economic automobiles than before.But even in an advanced internal combustion engine, about two-thirds of fuel consumed by an automobile is discharged into the surroundings as waste heat. The effect of this is the increase in the surrounding air temperature which in turn contributes significantly to global warming. This paper proposes amethod to reduce the emission of heat from automobiles by designing and implementinga waste heat recovery system for internal combustion (IC) engines. The key aim is to reduce the amount of heat released into the environment and to convert it into useful energy. A thermoelectric generator (TEG) assembly is used to directly convert the wasted heat energy from the automobile into electrical energy. This electrical energy is conditioned using a Cukconverter and maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm is embedded in the converter for impedance matching and maximum power transfer from TEG to the converter. The conditioned output is used to charge the battery of the vehicle. This methodologyalso increases the energy efficiency of the vehicle as a higher capacity battery can be employed.The proposed system can work well under varying temperature conditions to give a constant output. It can be implemented in any mechanical/ electrical systems were there is wastage of heat energy like gas pipelines, wearable electronics, space probes, cookstoves, boilers, thermal vision, etc. One of the thrust areas where this technology can be effectively utilized in today’s world is in electric vehicles where the energy efficiency is the most important factor.

scholarly journals Regeneration of Electrical Energy from Waste Geothermal Fluid in Geothermal Power Plants

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-531
Author(s):  
Mahmut Hekim ◽  
Engin Cetin
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
Thermoelectric Generator ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Heat Energy ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Geothermal Resources ◽  
Geothermal Fluid ◽  
Geothermal Power ◽  
Electrical Energy Production

Geothermal power plants are the plants that provide the conversion of thermal energy in geothermal fluid to electrical energy as a result of the extraction of underground hot water resources to the earth by drilling. The total installed power of geothermal power plants in the field of geothermal resources in Turkey has reached 1,336 MW. The geothermal fluid, which is used for electric power generation in geothermal power plants, is re-injected into the underground wells after electrical energy production. For efficient generation of electrical energy in geothermal power plants, it is aimed to reuse the waste heat energy within the geothermal fluid before it is sent to the re-injection well. To achieve this aim, thermoelectric generator modules which convert waste heat energy to electrical energy can be used. In this study, a thermoelectric generator-based geothermal power plant simulator that converts geothermal fluid waste heat into electrical energy is installed and commissioned in the laboratory conditions.

scholarly journals Energy Harvesting Technology by Converting Waste Heat Energy from Automobiles

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 127-132
Author(s):  
Md Abdullah Al Rakib Rakib ◽  
Md. Saniat Rahman Zishan ◽  
Md. Abid Hasan Abid
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Thermoelectric Generator ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Heat Energy ◽  
Conversion Process ◽  
Energy Sources

In this project, heat energy is used for generatingelectrical energy by a conversion process. The energy harvestingfrom the heat of motorbike has become a new source of portableenergy for rechargeable gadgets. In contrary, the conventionalnonrenewable energy sources have likewise added to anexpansion in contamination on the planet and a disintegration ofhuman wellbeing. From the electrical energy, the mobile phonewill be charged. A thermoelectric generator has been connectedto the hot portion of the motorbike and while riding the bike, anykind of chargeable device will get charged. The prototype of thisresearch work has effectively harvested electrical energy fromheat using thermoelectric generator and has managed to provideenough power at different speeds of the motorbike.

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