A novel two-stage thermophotovoltaic-thermoelectric system based on micro combustion

Abstract

Aiming at solving the problem of low energy conversion efficiency due to high energy loss in micro-combustion power system, this work innovatively proposed a two-stage thermophotovoltaic-thermoelectric energy conversion system. The effects of the inlet velocity and the equivalence ratio on the energy conversion efficiency of the two-stage thermophotovoltaic-thermoelectric energy conversion system are investigated. The results indicate that two-stage thermophotovoltaic-thermoelectric energy conversion system significantly alleviates the problem of large energy loss in the micro-combustion power system and improves the energy output and energy conversion efficiency of the micro-combustion power system. As the inlet velocity increases, the total output efficiency of the micro-photovoltaic module, thermoelectric module and the overall system decreases. Under the H2/air flow condition with an inlet velocity of 6 m/s and an equivalence ratio of 1.0, the total system reaches its a maximum energy conversion efficiency of 5.05% and generates an output power of 6.17 W.