A simulation study of automotive waste heat recovery using a thermoelectric power generator

A waste cold recovery from the exhausted cryogenic nitrogen by using thermoelectric power generator

“…A TEG is a solidstate device that can directly convert heat to the electric energy through the Seebeck effect. TEG applications have been extensively studied in aerospace [1], automobile [2,3], lamps [4,5], wearable devices [6], etc. ; a nice review can be found in the reference of [7].…”

“…The RTG (radioisotope thermoelectric generator) was designed to generate power for the spacecraft by converting the heat released from the nuclear decay of radioactive isotopes into electricity; the GPHS-RTG using SiGe thermoelectric material can generate a total electrical power of about 300 W (specific power of about 5.4 W/kg), and has been used on the Galileo, Ulysses, and Cassini spacecraft [1]. Weng and Huang [2] designed and simulated a heat exchanger attached with TEGs for harvesting waste heat from the automotive exhaust pipe; it found that implementing more TEGs may not necessarily produce more power because the heat sinks attached to the downstream TEGs may loot heat from the upstream hotter wall, resulting in a performance degradation of the upstream TEGs. Liu et al [3] designed a dimple-fin heat exchanger with twenty TEG modules cooled by a water coolant system; a total power of 148 W was obtained by recovering the waste heat from the automotive exhaust pipe.…”

Comparison and parameter optimization of a segmented thermoelectric generator by using the high temperature exhaust of a diesel engine

“…The output power and conversion efficiency of TEGs have a close relationship with entropy generation. Weng and Huang [19] explored the relationship between quantities of TEMs, revealing that using increasing the number of thermocouples does not necessarily increase the total generated power; TEGs have an optimal structure for improving conversion efficiency. This paper proposes using a segmented TEG to recover the waste heat of DEs and optimizing the TEG structure.…”

Effect of cooling design on the characteristics and performance of thermoelectric generator used for internal combustion engine

“…Yu et al [5,6] developed a numerical model and found that the performance of TEG modules is improved with the increment of the vehicle (a pickup truck) speed: from 18 W to 220 W when the speed increases from 20 km h À1 to 120 km h À1 , and the transient behaviors of the TEG modules in different driving conditions were also investigated. Weng and Huang [7] found that increasing the number of TEG units may not necessarily generate more power, and proper coverage of the TEG units on heat exchangers is important.…”