Comparative Evaluation of Thermoelectric Energy Conversion Systems for Heat Recovery With and Without a Water-Cooling Thermal Energy Adjustment Structure

Abstract

The stable exchange of energy and the effective conduction of heat are particularly critical to ensuring the stable operation of thermoelectric components in entire thermoelectric conversion processes. Poor heat exchange and conduction will cause thermal energy in a thermoelectric system to accumulate, leading to the consequence of burning the energy conversion modules. To solve these problems, a thermoelectric energy conversion system equipped with a water-cooling thermal energy adjustment structure settled on the surface of the heat source was proposed. The working temperature of the heat source, the output voltage, current, and power of the thermoelectric system with and without the structure were obtained and compared. Through comparative analysis, benefiting from the above structure, the temperature fluctuation of the heat sink surface of the heat source was found to drop from 10.36 K to 1.18 K, and the maximum output of the system increased from 255 to 290 mV through the process of input voltage from 1 to 6 V. Furthermore, in the process of gradually increasing the load from 0 to 180 ohms, the system achieves an increased output of 53.8 mV, 1.81 mA and 52.1 mV, 1.83 mA when the input voltage was 4 and 5 V, respectively. In conclusion, the application and design of the above structure obviously promotes the stability and output capacity during thermoelectric energy conversion. The combination of the watercooling thermal energy adjustment structure with pulse-width modulation (PWM) or maximum power point tracking (MPPT) theory is worth further study. INDEX TERMS Energy conversion, heat recovery, thermoelectric system, water-cooling.

Performance of Thermoelectric Power-Generation System for Sufficient Recovery and Reuse of Heat Accumulated at Cold Side of TEG with Water-Cooling Energy Exchange Circuit

“…According to the Peltier effect, the energy of the hot and cold sides of the TEC can be calculated as follows [20]: where α TEC , q HC , I TEC , T HC , T CC , K TEC , R IN−TEC and ∆T HC−CC are, respectively, the Seebeck coefficient of the TEC module, the energy absorbed by the hot side of the TEC module, the energy released by the cold side of the TEC module, the electrical current of the TEC module, the hot-side temperature of the TEC module, the cold-side temperature of the TEC module, the thermal conductance of the TEC module, the internal electric resistance of the TEC module, and the temperature difference between the hot and cold sides of the TEC modu The DC power supply P IN−TEC can be obtained by multiplying the input voltage V IN and the input current I IN :…”

“…Lv et al devised a solar thermoelectric power generator with a micro-channel heat pipe and tube for cooling water, outputting electrical power and heat energy simultaneously [19]. Zhang et al chose a water-cooling circuit to keep the cold side of the thermoelectric module stable [20,21]. The above examples clearly show that the cooling method of a thermoelectric conversion system plays an important role in power generation, and further study should be carried out to acquire a stable and high-performance thermoelectric energy supply.…”

Effect of liquid saturated porous medium on heat transfer from thermoelectric generator

“…Several experimental and theoretical studies [13][14][15][16] examined heat transfer from the TEG surface in order to improve its performance and its power generation. TEG with heat pipe heat sink has been investigated with variable fin space, fin length, fin height, fin materials for both natural and forced convection to enhance the TEG performance [17,18].…”