Waste Heat Power Generation of Gasifier Stove using TEG with Water Cooling Unit

Waste heat is inexpensive and abundant in nature, contributing significantly to global warming. It benefits nature if we can use waste heat that escapes into the atmosphere after it has served its original purpose. To recover waste heat energy, thermoelectric materials are essential. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, it is estimated that nearly 40% or around 9 million households still use an open-air wood-fueled stove, making it the most used cooking method. A household using open-air cooking stoves releases a high level of particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and other health-damaging pollutants into the environment. The Top-lit Updraft (TLUD) Gasifier is the advanced development of cookstoves that uses biomass to create a sustainable and environmentally friendly stove that can fully utilize the fire-producing capacity of the fuel. In this study, we introduced a waste heat recovery power generation system of a gasifier stove. The idea is to attach multiple TEGs in the outer frame of the gasifier stove to recover the heat. Water cooling units were added to maximize the power generated by the TEGs. Design, proof of concept, and actual experiments were presented in this paper. The result shows that the TEG with water cooling units in a gasifier stove produced more power than no water cooling and stagnant water.

I. Introduction

The abrupt rise of the human population and location changes led to an increase in the need for electrification. Most of the areas without electricity are in remote and unviable off-grid locations. As stated in the Energy Access Outlook 2017, 1.1 billion people, roughly 14% of the world’s population, were deprived of electricity. Around 84% of that estimate are people residing in rural areas. Additionally, roughly 95% of people without access to electricity are mainly from developing Asian and sub-Saharan African countries. In the Philippines, the household electrification coverage was 89.6% as of July 2016. This meant 2.36 million households had an absence of electricity while other areas were granted four to six hours of electricity per day, as per the report of the Department of Energy. The electrification of households, specifically in rural areas, is a problem for the Philippine government.