Direct heat to electricity conversion in thermoelectric energy systems

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The objective of this proposal is the advanced investigation and testing of various innovative approaches to increase the electrical output power of thermoelectric energy systems. In the first project, the efficiency of thermoelectric waste heat recovery was determined under realistic conditions. For this purpose, a multi chamber calorimeter was constructed, so that different thermoelectric modules have been examined. The improvement of the efficiency was carried out by an inverter with maximum power point tracking (MPPT). In the project a thermo generator (TEG) consisting of 12 modules was exemplarily constructed and tested. An electrical circuit has been developed which converts the output of thermoelectric module network in a maximum output electric power. The efficiency of 3.3 % (at temperatures up to 200 ° C) was obtained. An open question is the efficiency improvement at higher temperatures (T> 200 ° C).