Low Grade Heat Power Generation using Thermoelectric Generator

Abstract

Over years, researches on power generation from low grade heat energy sources have been increasing rapidly as it will be beneficial towards environment, human lives and also for long term sustainability. Due to its biggest potential and advantages, thermoelectric generator has been reliably used to generate electricity. In this project, an experiment on power generation using thermoelectric generator by employing low grade heat (<150 °C) energy source was carried out. The main purpose of this project was to generate useful electricity using thermoelectric generator and to investigate the quality of heat exchanger in enhancing the performance of thermoelectric generator. A prototype heat exchanger was used to carry out this experiment. The heat exchanger was tested with varied hot and cold water supply to study the effect of temperature difference on the thermoelectric generators. For this project, the highest output power obtained was 0.98 W and the maximum efficiency was 1.91%.