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Performance study of thermo-electric generator

Conference Paper in AIP Conference Proceedings · July 2017

DOI: 10.1063/1.4990247

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Performance study of thermo-electric generator
G. Rohit, D. Manaswini, Vinod Kotebavi, and Nagaraja S R

Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 1859, 020094 (2017); doi: 10.1063/1.4990247

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4990247
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apc/1859/1
Published by the American Institute of Physics
 Performance Study of Thermo-Electric Generator

G Rohit1, D Manaswini1, Vinod Kotebavi2, Nagaraja S R3,a.

1, 2, 3 Department of Mechanical Engineering

Amrita School of Engineering, Bengaluru
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham,
Amrita University
aEmail: sr_nagaraja@blr.amrita.edu

Abstract. Devices like automobiles, stoves, ovens, boilers, kilns and heaters dissipate large amount of waste heat. Since
most of this waste heat goes unused, the efficiency of these devices is drastically reduced. A lot of research is being
conducted on the recovery of the waste heat, among which Thermoelectric Generators (TEG) is one of the popular
method. TEG is a semiconductor device that produces electric potential difference when a thermal gradient develops on
it. This paper deals with the study of performance of a TEG module for different hot surface temperatures. Performance
characteristics used here are voltage, current and power developed by the TEG. One side of the TEG was kept on a hot
plate where uniform heat flux was supplied to that. And the other side was cooled by supplying cold water. The results
show that the output power increases significantly with increase in the temperature of the hot surface.

1. INTRODUCTION
It has been estimated that about 20 to 50% of total energy input is lost in the form of waste heat from sources
like exhaust gases, cooling equipment and hot equipment surfaces in the energy industry. There has been a lot of
research into the recovery of this waste heat. One leading way is to use the technology of thermoelectric
generators.
Thermoelectric generators are devices which convert heat energy into electrical energy and vice-versa. These
are semiconductors works with the principle of thermoelectric effect. These devices are very simple in
construction and the maintenance cost is low as there are no moving parts. For waste heat utilization, these
generators offer a high potential. Recently developed ceramic material based generators are designed for a
maximum operating temperature of 1000oC, but in the past, materials are made out of Bi2Te3 and are restricted
to the temperatures below 400oC. The manufacturing of thermoelectric modules is done by coupling two
conjugate p-type and n-type doped semiconductor material in an optimized manner.
Vázquez et al. [1] obtained electric power in the range of 43 W to 193 W, by installing TEGs in a car which
was running at 65 km per hour. They observed that for the other working conditions, like idling, the same TEGs
were inefficient. This was because the optimum working temperatures of the thermoelectric materials were not
matching with the temperature range of the exhaust gases. Wang et al. [2] developed a mathematical model of a
thermoelectric generator. They used exhaust gas of the vehicle as a heat source. They showed that the high
temperature side convective heat transfer coefficient effect is more than that of the low temperature side on the
efficiency and power. They also showed that there is a peak value of output power for every height of the PN
couple and this peak point increases with the increase in the electric conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of the
material and decreases with the decrease in the thermal conductivity of the material. Thacher et al. [3] conducted
performance test on automobile exhaust thermoelectric generator (AETEG). They installed AETEG in a
passenger vehicle and it was designed for a power of 330 W. They used 16 TEG modules with 2 series i.e. 8 in
each series. Exhaust heat was transferred to the model using carbon steel heat exchangers and the waste heat

International Conference on Functional Materials, Characterization, Solid State Physics, Power, Thermal and Combustion Energy
AIP Conf. Proc. 1859, 020094-1–020094-6; doi: 10.1063/1.4990247
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1533-1/$30.00

020094-1
from the module was rejected to the engine cooling system. Their objective was to study the performance of
AETEG and to determine the factors which are important for the optimal design of AETEG. They concluded that
the power can be increased significantly by reducing the heat loss from the exhaust and reducing the coolant
temperature, the parasitic losses resulting from its weight and the pumping power of the coolant were significant.
Many current researchers have discussed use of TEG as a device for the recovery of heat from engines
exhausts and few have claimed patents. Cumming [4] claimed that power generated by TEG using the heat of
engine exhaust can be saved in batteries and can be used for driving a hybrid vehicle. Karri et al. [5] studied the
performance of a TEG in two cases: 1) a sport utility vehicle and 2) a generator engine fueled with compressed
natural gas. They used two different materials for the modules 1) bismuth telluride and (2) quantum-well device.
Their results showed that in case of both vehicles under the same conditions, quantum-well device was more
efficient.

FIGURE 1. Schematic of TEG module

Figure 1 shows the schematic view of a thermoelectric generator. It consists of a module and ceramic plates
on both sides and it works between a hot source and a cold sink. Rowe [6] states that the efficiency of the TEG is
relatively less hence its use is restricted to the fields like space, military and medical applications. In recent years
researchers have shown that the power can be increased by using different materials. In the early 1990s, Hi-Z Inc
designed and produced 1 kW power using exhaust heat of a diesel truck. Then Nissan Motors used silicon
germanium (SiGe) thermoelectric materials and were able to get 35.6 W power in a 3000 cc gasoline engine. Liu
et al. [7] designed and built a TEG system of 1 kW capacity. They used geothermal energy as a heat source. They
proved that in terms of equivalent energy generated, the cost of TEG is lesser that photovoltaic cells.

2. PRINCIPLE OF THERMOELECTRIC GENERATION

The Thermoelectric generator works on the principle of the Seebeck effect. When two junctions formed
by joining two dissimilar materials maintained at different temperatures, an voltage of the order μV/K is
generated. The materials used here are called thermo electric materials. The selection of these materials is based
on their properties like, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient etc.
The amount of power generated by the TEG depends on the temperature difference between the opposite
faces of the TEG. When one surface is maintained at a higher temperature heat gets conducted to the other
surface which reduces the temperature difference. Hence a heat exchanger needs to be designed to maintain low
temperature on the other face. The objectives of the present study are to fabricate and study the performance of
TEG for different temperatures.

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 3. METHODOLOGY
Many different materials are available for making TEG modules. Since Bismuth telluride has better power
rating and is abundantly available hence we used Bi2Te3TEG module in this study. A heat exchanger has been
designed to maintain temperature difference between the two faces of the TEG. We used Aluminum heat
exchanger because of its high thermal conductivity. Parameters considered for the design of heat exchanger were
the amount of heat to be pumped and the flow rate of water needed. We maintained a constant water flow rate in
the heat exchanger. The specifications of the TEG used are as follows.

x The maximum operating temperature - 230°C

x Open circuit voltage is 12.1 volts
x Dimensions 40mm*40mm*3.4mm
x The thermo electric material used is Bi2Te3 and its properties are
¾ Thermal conductivity = 2 W/m-K
¾ Density = 7790 Kg/m3
¾ Specific heat = 250 J/Kg-K

TEG is covered by ceramic plates of 0.8mm thick on both sides and the thermal conductivity and density of the
material is 30 W/m-K and 3300 Kg/m3 respectively.

4. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
An emissivity apparatus was used for the experiment which had an electric heater with a knob to adjust the
heat supplied, thermocouples to measure the temperature at the bottom surface of the TEG module. An
aluminum heat exchanger was fabricated to improve cooling on the other side of the module to create a higher
temperature gradient which would result in higher power generation from the TEG module. A multi meter was
used to measure the current and voltage output from the leads of the module.
The heater in the emissivity apparatus was used to heat the bottom side of the emissivity module. Readings of
voltage and current output from the TEG module were taken using a multi meter from 35 degree Celsius onwards
for every 10 degree rise in temperature. This was continued until a temperature of 145 degree Celsius was
reached.

FIGURE 2. Experimental Setup with the thermoelectric generation module

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 TABLE 1. Performances of TEG module

Temperature in oC Voltage in mV Current in mA Power in mW

35 21.8 1 0.0218
45 443 1.9 0.8417
55 486 5.4 2.6244
65 508 13 6.6040
75 570 24.9 14.1930
85 645 36 23.2200
95 742 52 38.5840
105 848 76.8 65.1264
115 1102 96.4 106.233
125 1348 121.4 163.647
135 1678 168 281.904
145 2080 206 428.480
150 2287 231 528.297
155 2500 260 650.000

5. RESULTS

During the experiment the temperature was varied from 35 o C to 155o C. We observed increased in power
output with the increase in temperature. The variation of power, current and voltage produced by the TEG are
plotted against the temperature in the figures 3, 4 and 5 respectively.

Power vsTemperature
0.7

0.6

0.5
Power in W

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Temperature in degree C

FIGURE 3. Powr vs Temperature

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 Current vs Temperature
300

250

200
Current in mA

150

100

50

0
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Temperature in degree C

FIGURE 4. Current vs Temperature

Voltage vs Temperature
3000

2500

2000
Voltage in mV

1500

1000

500

0
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Temperature in degree C

FIGURE 5. Voltage vs Temperature

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 6. CONCLUSIONS
This paper describes the basic concepts of power generation by thermoelectric generators and its relevant
applications in the waste heat recovery systems. The study is useful in power generation by using Bismuth-
Telluride TEG where availability of waste heat is high like engine exhaust, furnaces, heaters, stoves etc. This
study shows that the power produced is directly proportional to the temperature of the hot surface. Maximum
power output obtained was 650mW and further experiments are being conducted to improve the performance by
using effective heat exchanger.

7. REFERENCES
1.Jorge Vázquez, Miguel A. Sanz-Bobi, Rafael Palacios, Antonio Arenas “State of the Art of Thermoelectric
Generators Based on Heat Recovered from the Exhaust Gases of Automobiles” .
2.Yuchao Wang, Chuanshan Dai, Shixue Wang “Theoretical analysis of a thermoelectric generator using exhaust
gas of vehicles as heat source” Applied Energy 122 (2013) 117-1180
3.E F Thacher1, B T Helenbrook, M A Karri, and C J Richter “Testing of an automobile exhaust thermoelectric
generator in a light truck” Journal of Automobile Engineering Vol 221
4.Cummings, T.A. Internal Combustion Electric Power Hybrid Power Plant. U.S. Patent 4,148,192,
23 November 1977
5.Karri, M.A.; Thacher, E.F.; Helenbrook, B.T. Clarkson Exhaust energy conversion by thermoelectric
generator:
6.D. M. Rowe “ Thermoelectrics, An Environmentally – Friendly Source of Electrical Power” Renewable
Energy 16 (1999) 1251-1256
7. Changwei Liu, Pingyun Chen, Kewen Li “A 1 KW Thermoelectric Generator for Low-temperature
Geothermal Resources” Proceedings, Thirty-Ninth Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering, Stanford
University, Stanford, California, February 24-26, 2014
8.David Van: Modelling and Application of a Thermoelectric Generator. University of Toronto, 2011.
9.M. Dannowski, W. Beckert, L. Wagner, H.P. Martin: 3D-Model of Asymmetric Thermo-Electric Generator
Modules for High Temperature Applications. Fraunhofer IKTS, Dresden, Germany

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