Experimental validation and numerical assessment of a temperature-controlled thermoelectric generator concept aimed at maximizing performance under highly variable thermal load driving cycles

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Although the internal combustion engine (ICE) dominance in mobility is being challenged, ICE R&D enables a non-disruptive transition towards sustainable transportation through hybridization and carbon neutral fuels. The efficiency improvement of ICE-based mobility through Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) is thus a priority, especially in the area of hybrid, plugin hybrid and long-haul transportation, where the recovery potential is high, and ICEs will still be used for a long time. Thermoelectric (TE) Generators (TEGs) have been assessed as a possible low maintenance WHR solution for long. However, viable market solutions are still not a reality. While material costs are steadily being overcome with novel affordable TE materials, there is still the issue of low average conversion efficiency under realistic driving conditions. This is caused by the fact that the efficiency of TEGs is further deprecated by the big challenge of thermally optimizing the TEGs under highly variable conditions of exhaust flow rate and exhaust temperature during real-world driving. This thermal optimization mainly means that the hot side temperature should be as close as possible to the maximum allowable temperature of the modules, but not higher.The authors have been exploring exhaust heat exchanger (HX) concepts that allow achieving this thermal optimization under highly variable thermal loads by using phase change. The strategy used incorporates the spreading of excess heat along the HX by variable conductance heat pipes (VCHPs) embedded in it, thus enabling to maximize the energy conversion without thermal dilution under low thermal loads or overheating risk under high thermal loads. This was done by pre-regulating the pressure of the non-condensable gas (NCG) present inside the VCHPs so that these devices would start performing the spreading of excess heat from over-heated to under-heated regions of the HX at a precise phase change temperature, optimized to the optimal thermal level of the thermoelectric generators.The merit of the aforementioned strategy was confirmed through modelling and illustrated in previous work. The scientific novelty of present study relatively to previous work by the authors or other researchers is that it finally provides a full experimental validation of this concept with two different prototypes attached to a light duty engine. The experimental proof-of-concept results were successfully compared against predictions. Finally, theoretical performance analysis of the impact of the application on a light duty vehicle in terms of fuel economy and GHG emissions during the WLTC class 3 b was assessed with the help of driving cycle and engine simulations performed with AVL Suite software.The unique heat spreading and temperature control features of the concept were confirmed experimentally. In addition, predictions made by the model were far beyond the current state of the art for light duty automotive TEG generators. Namely, maximum output powers exceeding 2 kW and 1.2 kW were predicted during the WLTC cycle when using commercial bismuth telluride and the silicide-Tetrahedrite modules explored by the authors, respectively. Average fuel/CO2 savings of 4% were predicted for the WLTC cycle, with these savings raising to 12% during the highway portion of the cycle. This unparalleled performance is explained by the possibility of achieving both an optimized hot face temperature and a high heat exchanger effectiveness even under highly variable thermal loads.