Systematic Studies of the High Output Thermoelectric Power Generation

Abstract

Authors have methodically investigated the alternative energy technologies based upon thermoelectricity generation. Firstly, its power is systematically investigated under various work conditions in thermoelectric applications. In addition, they have modeled, designed, and constructed the thermoelectric power system. Moreover, they have invented a state-of-the-art table-top instrument that may evaluate several critical thermoelectric characters in situ. Several aspects of the thermoelectric features are characterized in situ that include the efficiency, force response curve, current-voltage (i.e., I-V) curve, power-voltage (P-V) curve, and the power versus temperature (P-T) responses. Furthermore, they have successfully built a high-power heat harvester and have applied to the automotive case study in details. Finally, they have obtained the multi-stack thermoelectric devices that have improved characters; e.g., both the power output and the thermoelectric efficiency have improved in comparison to the devices commercially available. The investigation leads to 19+% efficiency in triple stack devices and 10+% in dual-stack.