Experimental investigation of the applicability of a thermoelectric generator to recover waste heat from a combustion chamber

摘要

A thermoelectric generator prototype has been bui it produces 21.56W of net power, the produced thermoelectric power minus the consumption of the auxiliary equipment, using an area of 0.25 m(2) (approximately 100 W/m(2)). The prototype is located at the exhaust of a combustion chamber and it is provided with 48 thermoelectric modules and two different kinds of heat exchangers, finned heat sinks and heat pipes. Globally, the 40% of the primary energy used is thrown to the ambient as waste heat; one of the many different applications in which thermoelectricity can be applied is to harvest waste heat to produce electrical power.