Thermoelectric Generation Using Industrial Grade Low-Cost Materials

DOI

10.2991/seee-15.2015.4How to use a DOI?

Keywords

thermo electric generator; seebeck effect; thermoelectric power; low cost electricity; metals

Abstract

Thermoelectric effect or Seebeck effect provides a means by which thermal energy can be converted into electricity directly. Voltage appears between two different types of materials (Conductor or Semiconductor) that are joined together and its junction is heated. While most efficient materials are semiconductors, these are expensive, thus, research into thermoelectric properties of industrial grade materials is very useful for fabrication of low cost devices. Using materials such as Iron, Aluminum and Brass, cheap TEGs were constructed and several parameters were tested for three separate combinations made using these materials. An output voltage up to 0.5mV per couple at a ZT of 0.08 was achieved. It was apparent that using active cooling methods such as ice water or heat sinks with cooling fans increased the output values to around 0.7mV per couple. Although the efficiencies are not high, these TEGs provide low-cost devices that can produce small-scale sustainable energy through co-generation and energy-scavenging.

Copyright

© 2015, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - K. P. V. B. Kobbekaduwa
AU  - N.D. Subasinghe
PY  - 2015/10
DA  - 2015/10
TI  - Thermoelectric Generation Using Industrial Grade Low-Cost Materials
BT  - Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Engineering
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 12
EP  - 15
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/seee-15.2015.4
DO  - 10.2991/seee-15.2015.4
ID  - Kobbekaduwa2015/10
ER  -