Thermoelectric Generators : A comparison of electrical power outputs depending on temperature.

Abstract: Today many processes generate a lot of waste heat, for example industries or cars. One way to make this thermal energy useful is to transform it into electrical energy with a thermoelectric generator (TEG) or thermoelectric cooler (TEC). This technology is not used in any large scale today, but a lot of research is being done on the subject. The technology is based on the Seebeck effect and uses a temperature difference between two sides of an element to generate an electrical current. The reason that the research has gained more attention in recent years is because of the increasing electricity prices and the diminishing natural resources. Other benefits are that they run quietly and do not demand much maintenance.Another area where this technology could be useful is in off-grid cabins where it is easy to generate a lot of thermal energy by burning wood, but electrical energy is in high demand.In this thesis two different types of TEGs and one type of TEC are tested to investigate how much power they generate at different temperature differences, how well they meet the specified values in their respective data sheet and what their power per euro value is. For this, an experimental setup was made with:- An induction plate to increase the temperature on the hot side.- A CPU-fan, to reduce the temperature on the cold side.- Two temperature sensors (one for measuring the hot temperature and one for the cold one).- An electric circuit featuring a voltmeter, an amperemeter and an adjustable resistor (rheostat).The results show that, for this experiment the highest received power (6,38 W) comes from the medium-priced element but the highest power per euro comes from the lowest priced element (1,16 W/€). A quality problem for the lowest priced element was that parts of the solder melted when the temperature exceeded 225 °C. Another problem was that the induction plate was unable to provide enough heat for the most expensive of the elements to reach the temperature for which the retailer supplies their measured data.