Increasing the Efficiency of a Thermoelectric Generator Using an Evaporative Cooling System
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Author list: Boonyasri M., Jamradloedluk J., Lertsatitthanakorn C., Therdyothin A., Soponronnarit S.
Publisher: Springer
Publication year: 2017
Journal: Journal of Electronic Materials (0361-5235)
Volume number: 46
Issue number: 5
Start page: 3043
End page: 3048
Number of pages: 6
ISSN: 0361-5235
eISSN: 1543-186X
Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)
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Abstract
A system for reducing heat from the cold side of a thermoelectric (TE) power generator, based on the principle of evaporative cooling, is presented. An evaporative cooling system could increase the conversion efficiency of a TE generator. To this end, two sets of TE generators were constructed. Both TE generators were composed of five TE power modules. The cold and hot sides of the TE modules were fixed to rectangular fin heat sinks. The hot side heat sinks were inserted in a hot gas duct. The cold side of one set was cooled by the cooling air from a counter flow evaporative cooling system, whereas the other set was cooled by the parallel flow evaporative cooling system. The counter flow pattern had better performance than the parallel flow pattern. A comparison between the TE generator with and without an evaporative cooling system was made. Experimental results show that the power output increased by using the evaporative cooling system. This can significantly increase the TE conversion efficiency. The evaporative cooling system increased the power output of the TE generator from 22.9 W of ambient air flowing through the heat sinks to 28.6 W at the hot gas temperature of 350ฐC (an increase of about 24.8%). The present study shows the promising potential of using TE generators with evaporative cooling for waste heat recovery. ฉ 2016, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.
Keywords
conversion efficiency, Power output
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