A Novel Thermoelectric Generation Array Reconfiguration to Reduce Mismatch Power Loss Under Nonuniform Temperature Distribution

Abstract

In practice, industrial exhaust emissions as well as emissions from automobiles, ships, biomass combustion, etc., can be potential application areas for thermoelectric generation (TEG). However, the structural design of heat exchange equipment is usually limited by the internal flow field, resulting in uneven temperature distribution on the heat exchange equipment’s surface. The resulting mismatch power loss is a major challenge for thermoelectric power generation. In this study, based on the characteristics of the surface temperature distribution of heat exchange equipment in the context of gas emissions, a static reconfiguration scheme is proposed for reconfiguring honeycomb (HC) arrays using the symmetric interval crossing (SIC) method. Based on a fixed interconnect array configuration, the solution requires only a change in the location of the modules and no change in the electrical connections, thus reducing mismatch losses while lowering manufacturing costs. Test experiments are conducted for 6 × 6 TEG arrays, mismatch losses are evaluated for four nonuniform temperature distribution cases, and the performance of seven different TEG array configurations is compared. The findings demonstrate that, in nonuniform temperature distribution scenarios, the SIC method can effectively reduce mismatch losses and has a greater output power than alternative array configurations.