Abstract
To improve the thermoelectric conversion efficiency of solar thermoelectric power, a concentration solar thermoelectric generator (CTEG) unit based on concentrating and storing energy is designed. A Fresnel lens is used to concentrate thermal energy, and a phase change material (PCM) is used to store thermal energy to increase the temperature difference between the hot and cold ends of thermoelectric (TE) sheets. The heat stored in the PCM container will help to generate continuous solar energy at night and improve the thermal power conversion efficiency of the TEGs. The energy conversion equilibrium equation is established for the CTEG unit. By numerical calculation, we conclude that the absorption rate of the coating surface is reduced by 0.1 and the maximum thermoelectric conversion efficiency is reduced by approximately 0.4%. By selecting different heights of the heat exchanger, the unit supplies 1.025 v, 0.4204 v and 0.299 v open circuit voltages on average for approximately 30, 44 and 53 minutes, respectively. Therefore, the height of the heat exchanger affects the rate of heat energy absorption and release. The reversible operation of the CTEG-PCM unit is conducive to the day and night operation of solar power generation and is more suitable to solving the self-supplying power problem for wireless temperature sensors in forests.
Highlights
The main bottleneck of wireless sensor network (WSN) applications is the power supply of each node
The results show that the reversible operation of the thermoelectric generator (TEG) module is conducive to the day and night cycle operation of solar power generation
EFFECT OF THE CONCENTRATION RATIO ON THE concentration solar thermoelectric generator (CTEG)-phase change material (PCM) When the area of the heat collector is kept constant, different concentration ratios can be obtained by varying the area of the Fresnel lens
Summary
The main bottleneck of wireless sensor network (WSN) applications is the power supply of each node. These authors evaluated the performance characteristics of the TEG Their results confirmed the potential of the application of PCM as a cooling/heating media in TEGs. Tu et al [13] developed and experimentally analysed the application of PCM in thermoelectric power generation devices with considerable temperature changes from 100◦C to - 50◦C. A small power generation prototype which is composed of a concentration solar thermal electric generator (CTEG) and PCM is investigated experimentally. This prototype works under the condition of a Fresnel lens concentrating at the hot end and phase change storage at the cold end. It can be seen from (6) that the conversion efficiency of the CTEG-PCM unit depends on the optical efficiency of the lens, the absorption rate of the selective absorber, the concentration ratio and other parameters as well as the conversion efficiency of the TE module
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