Design of Heat Pipe Assisted Thermoelectric Generator and Experimental Investigaton of the Power Performance

A thermoelectric generator system has a potential to transform waste heat into electricity. Equate to other technologies of waste heat recover, usage of thermoelectric generators (TEGs) in a waste heat recovery system has many attractive features, for example quite operation, no moving parts, small size and endurance In addition to, thermoelectric generators are environmentally friendly materials that convert thermal energy directly into electricity by Seebeck effect. In work presented, a heat pipe assisted thermoelectric generator system is designed to generate electricity from the waste heat. Usage of heat pipes can latently decrease the thermal resistance and pressure losses in the system as well as temperature regulation of the TEGs and enhanced design flexibility. The designed system is suitable for the heat recovery from the piped systems such as the exhaust and the cylindrical chimney systems. The power performance of the designed thermoelectric generator system has been determined both theoretically and experimentally.