Modeling, experimental study and optimization on low-temperature waste heat thermoelectric generator system

Xiaolong Gou, Heng Xiao and Suwen Yang

Applied Energy, 2010, vol. 87, issue 10, 3136 pages

Abstract: Thermoelectric generation technology, due to its several kinds of merits, especially its promising applications to waste heat recovery, is becoming a noticeable research direction. Based on basic principles of thermoelectric generation technology and finite time thermodynamics, thermoelectric generator system model has been established. In order to investigate viability and further performance of the thermoelectric generator for waste heat recovery in industry area, a low-temperature waste heat thermoelectric generator setup has been constructed. Through the comparison of results between theoretic analysis and experiment, reasonability of this system model has been verified. Testing results and discussion show the promising potential of using thermoelectric generator for low-temperature waste heat recovery, especially in industrial fields. Several suggestions for system performance improvement have been proposed through the analysis on this system model, which guide optimization and modification of this experimental setup. By integrating theoretic analysis and experiment, it is found that besides increasing waste heat temperature and TE modules in series, expanding heat sink surface area in a proper range and enhancing cold-side heat transfer capacity in a proper range can also be employed to enhance performance of this setup.

Keywords: Thermoelectric; generator; Waste; heat; recovery; Modeling; Optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (106)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306-2619(10)00044-9
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:87:y:2010:i:10:p:3131-3136

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

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 ().