Experimental Investigation of the Performance of a Thermoelectric Generator

Thermoelectric generators (TEG) are used in many applications such as in computers, automobiles to generate electricity from the exhausted thermal gases. The waste heat recovery from the system can be used to generate electric current increasing the efficiency of the system. One of the methods to generate electric current from waste heat recovery is Seebeck-effect. In this paper, an experimental investigation is carried out in order to analyse the performance of a thermoelectric generator. To run experiment, a target system was built and a Peltier-cell was used as a thermoelectric generator. After measuring the electric currents and the temperature differences, heat and Seebeck-coefficient were calculated. The results show that a thermoelectric module is a promising and further looking device for waste heat recovery. Moreover, results show that 35 mA electric current can be generated with 15 °C of temperature difference. On the other hand, Seebeck coefficient was determined from the measured electrical voltage values. This experimental work gives useful information about the performance of the thermoelectric generator. The research was supported by the Ministry for Innovation and Technology: National Research, Development and Innovation Office.