Thermoelectric power generation from micro power supplies to kilowatt systems

Abstract

Energy crisis and carbon emission are increasingly prominent issues in our society. As one of the clean energy sources, thermoelectric power generation is a promising alternative energy technology to convert heat into electricity. If there is a heat source, thermoelectric generators can provide electricity for watches, sensors, electronics, spacecraft, etc., and can also be used to recover waste heat, such as automobile exhaust heat, industrial waste heat, ship waste heat, etc. This paper begins with the basic principles of thermoelectric generators and an outlook of thermoelectric materials in different application scenarios. Then, the thermoelectric generator systems, which can be classified into different groups according to their different power generation levels, also the corresponding progress, challenges, and future development are presented. In addition to exploring high-performance thermoelectric materials, the system efficiency of thermoelectric generators is much dependent upon advanced structural design and thermodynamic optimizations. In the previous and present works, some new optimization methods are applied to improve the performance of thermoelectric devices and systems, these include such as the asymmetric design, phase change heat transfer, optimization for thermoelectric devices based on temperature distributions, also heat pipe and converging design for thermoelectric generator systems. These works help breakthrough in thermoelectric power generation from low-level power generation to relatively higher-level power generation. The current progress helps provide a comprehensive insight into thermoelectric power generation technology from micro power supplies to kilowatt systems.