Liquid metal based thermoelectric generation system for waste heat recovery

Dan Dai, Yixin Zhou and Jing Liu

Renewable Energy, 2011, vol. 36, issue 12, 3530-3536

Abstract: A new type of thermoelectric generator (TEG) system based on liquid metal which serves to harvest and transport waste heat, is proposed in this paper. To demonstrate the feasibility of the new TEG system, an experimental prototype which combined commercially available thermoelectric (TE) modules with the electromagnetic pump was set up. Output voltage from TE modules and temperature changes of the main parts (waste heat source, liquid metal heating plate, water-cooling plates I and II) of the liquid metal based TEG system were experimentally measured, as well as the flow rate of cooling water and the load resistance. It was shown that the maximum open-circuit voltage of 34.7 V was obtained when the temperature of the waste heat source was 195.9 °C and the temperature gap between liquid metal heating plate and cooling-water plates was nearly 100 °C. These experimental results obviously verify that using liquid metal based TEG system for waste heat recovery is highly feasible. In addition, the TEG system performance is discussed and a calculated efficiency of 2% in the whole TEG system is obtained. Possible suggestions to further improve this type of generator in the future are given.

Keywords: Thermoelectric generator; Liquid metal; Waste heat recovery; Energy conservation; Environmental protection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:36:y:2011:i:12:p:3530-3536

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2011.06.012

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