Pulsating heat pipe and thermo-electric generator jointly applied in renewable energy exploitation: Analytical and experimental investigations

Wei-Wei Wang, Hong-Fei Yang, Hong-Liang Zhang, Tian-You Xu, Fu-Yun Zhao and Shi-Jing Wu

Energy, 2023, vol. 263, issue PA

Abstract: In order to effectively harvest solar energy and waste thermal, pulsating heat pipes (PHPs) could be utilized to promote the hot end temperature of the thermoelectric modules (TEMs) and thus enhance its conversion efficiency. This paper explored a novel approach of recovering low grade energy and conversion to electricity utilizing PHP assisted with TEG. This research fully analyzed the effects of various working fluids, input powers, filling ratios, inclination angles and air velocities on the thermo-hydrodynamic and electricity conversion performance of PHP-TEG hybrid system. Our results demonstrated that the peak-to-peak amplitude of output voltage mainly depends on heat inputs and working fluids, and independent of the filling ratios; the inclination angle (from 30° to 90°) has slight effects on the heat transfer performance and thermoelectric generation of PHP-TEG system, due to the advantages of surface tension. In addition, the inlet temperature and flow velocity of cooling water on the thermal recovery efficiency and thermo-electricity conversion performance were further investigated. These results indicated the best heat recovery performance of 80.12% and the maximum thermoelectric conversion efficiency of 1.22% were achieved simultaneously at the situation of 10 °C and 600 mL/min of cooling water. Present investigation could contribute to waste thermal recovery and electronic cooling applications.

Keywords: Thermoelectric generator (TEG); Pulsating heat pipe (PHP); Thermal recovery; Maximum output power and efficiency; Renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:263:y:2023:i:pa:s0360544222024598

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.125573

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