Comparative Evaluation of Thermoelectric Energy Conversion Systems for Heat Recovery with and without a Water-Cooling Thermal Energy Adjustment Structure

Abstract

The stable exchange of energy and the effective conduction of heat are particularly critical to ensuring the stable operation of thermoelectric components in entire thermoelectric conversion processes. Poor heat exchange and conduction will cause thermal energy in a thermoelectric system to accumulate, leading to the consequence of burning the energy conversion modules. To solve these problems, a thermoelectric energy conversion system equipped with a water-cooling thermal energy adjustment structure settled on the surface of the heat source was proposed. The working temperature of the heat source, the output voltage, current, and power of the thermoelectric system with and without the structure were obtained and compared. Through comparative analysis, benefiting from the above structure, the temperature fluctuation of the heat sink surface of the heat source was found to drop from 10.36 K to 1.18 K, and the maximum output of the system increased from 255 to 290 mV through the process of input voltage from 1 to 6 V. Furthermore, in the process of gradually increasing the load from 0 to 180 ohms, the system achieves an increased output of 53.8 mV, 1.81 mA and 52.1 mV, 1.83 mA when the input voltage was 4 and 5 V, respectively. In conclusion, the application and design of the above structure obviously promotes the stability and output capacity during thermoelectric energy conversion. The combination of the water-cooling thermal energy adjustment structure with pulse-width modulation (PWM) or maximum power point tracking (MPPT) theory is worth further study.