Studying the applicability of different thermoelectric materials for efficiency calculation in hybrid thermoelectric generator for waste heat recovery from automobile and steel industry

Kumar Gaurav; Sudhir K Pandey

paper

Studying the applicability of different thermoelectric materials for efficiency calculation in hybrid thermoelectric generator for waste heat recovery from automobile and steel industry

arXiv:1603.02883

Abstract

In this work, we study the suitability of different thermoelectric materials like $B i_{2} T e_{3}$ , $S b_{2} T e_{3}$ , $P b T e$ , $T A GS$ , $C e F e_{4} S b_{12}$ , $S i G e$ and $T i O_{1.1}$ in estimation of thermoelectric generator's (TEG) efficiency. The efficiency of TEG made up of $B e_{2} T e_{3}$ or $S b_{2} T e_{3}$ gives $\sim$ 7\% in temperature range of 310 K - 500 K. $P b T e$ or $T A GS$ or $C e F e_{4} S b_{12}$ gives $\sim$ 6\% in temperature range of 500 K - 900 K and $S i G e$ or $T i O_{1.1}$ also have remarkable efficiency in higher temperature range i.e $\sim$ 1200 K. Here, we report the enhancement of efficiency by using hybridization technique for different combination of above-mentioned materials. Hybridization of two different materials of TEG module is done by considering compatibility factor aspect. To this end, the proposed values of overall efficiency of TEG by hybridizing $B e_{2} T e_{3}$ and $P b T e$ ; $B e_{2} T e_{3}$ and $T A GS$ ; $B i_{2} T e_{3}$ and $C e F e_{4} S b_{12}$ are 12\%, 14\% and 11.88\%, respectively, for temperature range of 310 K to 900 K, which can be installed in an automobile. For steel industry and spacecraft application (till 1200 K) hybridization of $B i_{2} T e_{3}$ , $P b T e$ and $S i G e$ ; $B e_{2} T e_{3}$ and $T i O_{1.1}$ yields efficiency of $\sim$ 15.2\% and $\sim$ 17.2\%, respectively. The proposed results can be treated as a viable option for engineers, who are looking for fabricating TEG in real life applications such as automobile, spacecraft and steel industry.