Simultaneous power generation and heat recovery using a heat pipe assisted thermoelectric generator system

This research explores a new method of recovering waste heat and electricity using a combination of heat pipes and thermoelectric generators (HP-TEG). The HP-TEG system consists of Bismuth Telluride (Bi2Te3) based thermoelectric generators (TEGs), which are sandwiched between two finned heat pipes to achieve a temperature gradient across the TEG for thermoelectricity generation. A theoretical model was developed to predict the waste heat recovery and electricity conversion performances of the HP-TEG system under different parametric conditions. The modelling results show that the HP-TEG system has the capability of recovering 1.345 kW of waste heat and generating 10.39 W of electrical power using 8 installed TEGs. An experimental test bench for the HP-TEG system is under development and will be discussed in this paper.