Global energy balance in a diesel engine with a thermoelectric generator

S. Ezzitouni, P. Fernández-Yáñez, L. Sánchez and O. Armas

Applied Energy, 2020, vol. 269, issue C, No S0306261920306516

Abstract: The best possible thermal and mechanical energy management is necessary to have more efficient and less pollutant means of transport. This can be accomplished recovering part of the energy lost through exhaust systems in internal combustion engines. One of the devices able to recover this waste thermal energy is a thermoelectric generator. Plenty of works about their design have already been presented but their effects on the energy fluxes of the engine, which are crucial to the future thermal management of vehicles with thermoelectric generators, have not yet been studied in a comprehensive manner. A thorough and novel experimental analysis of the behavior of the main energy fluxes in a diesel engine with a thermoelectric generator was accomplished, an approach not already followed in previous literature. Due to their higher air-to-fuel ratio, in diesel engines is more difficult to recover exhaust energy. Furthermore, this study was conducted in the most adverse for energy recovery but most used part of the engine map, i.e. common driving conditions, and not only at high loads. Conditions in which thermoelectric generators could be more beneficial and less harmful to the efficiency of the engine were identified. It was found that thermoelectric generators can improve the global efficiency of internal combustion engines despite the low efficiency of current thermoelectric materials.

Keywords: Thermal energy; Waste energy; Diesel; Thermoelectric generator; Exhaust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261920306516
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:269:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920306516

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115139

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().