Study of different heat exchange technologies influence on the performance of thermoelectric generators

A key challenge in thermoelectric power conversion is to create a significant temperature difference (ΔT) across the thermoelectric generator (TEG). And one approach to create a larger temperature difference is to enhance heat transfer of the hot side of TEG. Thus, when a thermoelectric generator has been designed and manufactured, it is found that the heat exchangers of the thermoelectric device determines its performance. This paper investigated the differences as well as the advantages and disadvantages of three typical heat exchangers in a thermoelectric setup, and the power consumed by the auxiliary equipment to improve the thermoelectric performance were taken into account. For this purpose, a mathematical model has been developed. The accuracy of this model was verified via the experiments, by constructing and testing the prototypes. The results illustrate the net power output performance of thermoelectric devices with three different type of heat exchangers. The air cooling exchangers are shown a minimum auxiliary consumption whereas the heat pipe cooling exchanger are shown to be the most effective. At last, this article gets an economic analysis, and a new evaluation index associated with the power consumption of the auxiliary equipment is proposed. The results provided some practical guidelines for the design and application of practical thermoelectric power generations.