12 research outputs found
A thermoelectric power generating heat exchanger: Part I - Experimental realization
An experimental realization of a heat exchanger with commercial
thermoelectric generators (TEGs) is presented. The power producing capabilities
as a function of flow rate and temperature span are characterized for two
different commercial heat transfer fluids and for three different thermal
interface materials. The device is shown to produce 2 W per TEG or 0.22 W
cm at a fluid temperature difference of 175 C and a flow rate
per fluid channel of 5 L min. One experimentally realized design
produced 200 W in total from 100 TEGs. For the design considered here, the
power production is shown to depend more critically on the fluid temperature
span than on the fluid flow rate. Finally, the temperature span across the TEG
is shown to be 55% to 75% of the temperature span between the hot and cold
fluids.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figure