Thermoelectric Cells Cogeneration from Biomass Power Plant

A thermoelectric cells test facility has been designed and realized at the laboratory of the Department of Industrial Engineering (DIN), University of Bologna. The test facility has been configured to reproduce, in scale, the working conditions of a typical biomass power plant. Commercial thermoelectric cells (also named Seebeck cells) are characterized by direct low efficiency (up to 5%) conversion from thermal to electric energy. Many technical items have to be analyzed and consequent proper solutions must be found to reach the maximum power output. Thus, the test facility will return a great deal of information as regards the best integration between cells and biomass power plant. Furthermore, due to low cell efficiency, the goal of the integration is not to produce electrical energy for external power supply, but to realize a stand-alone biomass power plant wherein the electrical energy produced is totally auto-consumed. The paper shows the test facility and the experimental results and introduces the new test device that has been designed for industrial application.