Thermoelectric Power Generation System for Future Hybrid Vehicles Using Hot Exhaust Gas

Abstract

The present experimental and computational study investigates a new exhaust gas waste heat recovery system for hybrid vehicles, using a thermoelectric module (TEM) and heat pipes to produce electric power. It proposes a new thermoelectric generation (TEG) system, working with heat pipes to produce electricity from a limited hot surface area. The current TEG system is directly connected to the exhaust pipe, and the amount of electricity generated by the TEMs is directly proportional to their heated area. Current exhaust pipes fail to offer a sufficiently large hot surface area for the high-efficiency waste heat recovery required. To overcome this, a new TEG system has been designed to have an enlarged hot surface area by the addition of ten heat pipes, which act as highly efficient heat transfer devices and can transmit the heat to many TEMs. As designed, this new waste heat recovery system produces a maximum 350 W when the hot exhaust gas heats the evaporator surface of the heat pipe to 170°C; this promises great possibilities for application of this technology in future energy-efficient hybrid vehicles.

Combustion Characteristics of Butane Porous Burner for Thermoelectric Power Generation

“…The apparent advantage of an air recuperator was evident with an improved electrical efficiency reported in their later work. A number of useful applications of TE modules have also been disseminated by other notable investigators, for example, in a cook stove by Champier et al [3], and exhaust gas extraction for vehicular applications, as 2 Journal of Combustion shown by Yang and Stabler [4], Kim et al [5], and Deng et al [6]. With regards to butane gas, despite its popularity as household portable burner, considerable researches on it remained largely shallow.…”

Thermoelectric conversion of waste heat from IC engine-driven vehicles: A review of its application, issues, and solutions

“…Hot side of the TEG modules is attached to the surface of the aluminum block. The system generated 350 W by using 224 commercially available Bi 2 Te 3 modules . Goncalves et al presented a model that worked in the similar principle to recover exhaust energy using HP.…”

“…Exhaust thermoelectric generator with heat pipe (adapted from Kim et al) [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”

“…The system generated 350 W by using 224 commercially available Bi 2 Te 3 modules. 36 Goncalves et al presented a model that worked in the similar principle to recover exhaust energy using HP. A total of 40 variable conductance heat pipes (VCHPs) are used instead of standard HP whose evaporator side is protruded inside a square exhaust pipe and the condenser side is attached to a water cooling pipe.…”

Finite element analysis on the thermoelectric generator for the waste heat recovery of solar application

“…Several researches have been conducted to utilise the capability of thermoelectric generator (TEG) in order to generate the electrical power. Waste heat recovery from the cars [2][3][4], hot water or hot gas wastage from industries [5,6], heat from the sun irradiance or as part of hybrid system with other power generator devices [7][8][9].…”