Abstract
Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) have the ability to convert waste heat into electrical energy under unfavorable conditions and are becoming increasingly popular in academia, but have not yet achieved a broad commercial success, due to the still comparably low efficiency. To increase the efficiency and economic viability of TEGs, research is performed on the materials on one hand and on the system connection on the other. In the latter case, the net output power of the cooling system plays a key role. At first glance, passive cooling seems preferable to active cooling because it does not affect the net electrical output power. However, as shown in the present review, the active cooling is to be preferred for net output power. The situation is similar in air and water-cooling. Even though air-cooling is easier to set up, the water-cooling should be preferred to achieve higher net output power. It is shown that microchannel cooling has similar hydraulic performance to conventional cooling and inserts increase the net output power of TEG. As the review reveals that active water-cooling should be the method of choice to achieve high net output power, it also shows that a careful optimization is necessary to exploit the potential.
Highlights
In contrast to the previously mentioned reviews, the present review focuses exclusively on active water-cooling and the associated net output power in order to provide a decision-making aid for the design of water-cooled thermoelectric Generators (TEGs) systems
The results showed that Reynolds numbers higher than 400 and the nanoparticle concentration had no influence on the output power of the TEG
Wojtas et al [84] used at μTEG (10–400 μm) in combination with a microchannel heat exchanger (20–80 μm), as shown in Figure 17, to optimize the net output power numerically and experimentally
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Apart from efficiency, the limiting factor in many applications is on the one hand the maximum temperature under which the TEG can be operated. Several very detailed reviews firstly discuss the progress of the material development of TEG and conclude with application cases from different fields [2,4,5,18,19]. In the above-mentioned reviews, the output power was discussed without considering the power necessary for the cooling This means that it was not possible to evaluate the net output power, which is the most important parameter for an engineering application. In contrast to the previously mentioned reviews, the present review focuses exclusively on active water-cooling and the associated net output power in order to provide a decision-making aid for the design of water-cooled TEG systems
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