A review of thermoelectric generators for waste heat recovery in marine applications

Abstract

Due to the surging cost of fuel and stringent international regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, marine industries are focussing on discovering alternative power sources to decrease fuel expenses and enhance engine efficiency. To address future regulations, installed power generation will likely need to be complemented by a mix of energy-efficient plants, waste-energy recovery technologies, smart-power system configuration and network management, and energy-storage technologies.Thermoelectric generator systems offer the potential of harnessing waste heat and energy from low to high quality heat sources. Thermoelectric generator systems also offer many other advantages, including direct energy conversion (i.e., heat to electricity), no moving parts, a long lifespan, and no maintenance. This makes the thermoelectric generator system a perfect candidate for waste heat recovery from marine vessels. This study performs a critical review of thermoelectric generator waste heat recovery technologies and addresses the challenges for their potential application in current and future marine vessels.A description of marine waste heat recovery systems using thermoelectric generators is presented, including a cited energy-saving figure of merit or claimed benefit, such as fuel consumption reduction. Nonetheless, it is noted that the metric definitions vary across different sources and should be considered in the context of the literature source. This article also considers the challenges and prospects for thermoelectric generator waste heat recovery in marine vessels. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate the fuel and energy-saving potential of thermoelectric generator technology for marine vessels and to guide future research.