Design and experiments of a thermoelectric generator coupled to a gas cooker with energy storage module and thermosyphon cooling system

The use of gas cookers with electric ignition systems is widespread in China. For improving thermal efficiency and realize the self-powered operation to prevent the use of non-rechargeable dry cells, a novel cooker with an energy storage module (ESM) and a thermoelectric generator (TEG) is presented, which can convert part of gas waste heat into electricity stored in ESM to power the electronic pulse igniter. To provide effective cooling over short periods of time for the intermittent operation of one TEG in small-scale space of the cooker, a cost-effective and passive cooling system is designed. It has higher cooling efficiency compared to natural air-cooling and runs automatically without fans or pumps, avoids the startup problem of active cooling and improves the reliability of long-term operation. This work develops an entire integrated TEG-cooker system, and a continuous running process at the firepower of 4.0 kW of the burner for 30 min is tested experimentally. Results show that the TEG-cooker can be self-powered running. Maximum output power is 0.48 W, and the thermoelectric (TE) efficiency is 0.96% when TEG temperature difference is 46.6°C. The heat energy utilization efficiency of the TEG-cooker increases by 1.1%. Electricity stored in ESM can be used to ignite the TEG-cooker for 77 times and the average charging-discharging efficiency is 15.3%. The thermosyphon system can provide effective cooling briefly (~30 min) for the intermittent operation of TEG at regular intervals (~4 h).Abbreviations: CFD: Computational fluid dynamics; CNY: China Yuan; DC: Direct current; ESM: Energy storage module; MPPT: Maximum power point tracking; TE: Thermoelectric; TEC: Thermoelectric cooler; TEG: Thermoelectric generator.