Renewable Energy from Cooking Stove Waste Heat Energy using Thermoelectric Generator for Night Market Application

Abstract

Malaysia night market normally operated along a temporarily closed road. No electrical power provided by the authorities and therefore hawkers need to prepare their own. Currently, they are working with gasoline-electric generator. On top of the cost incurred, they also need to consume exhaust gas and noise from the machine. Further, this situation will also affect customers. With a high percentage of the hawkers involve with cooking activities using the LPG gas stove, excess heat is one of the potential energy which can be converted into electrical energy using a thermoelectric generator (TEG). The aim of this study is to convert the excess heat available used to powered night market electrical facilities. A set of experiments was conducted utilizing five units of TEG connected in series to convert excess heat from a butane gas stove to electrical power. The temperature at both the hot and cold sides of the TEG was recorded used to analyze the effect of power produced. Two electrical parameters namely voltage and current outputs were measured used to calculate the electrical power generated. The analysis focused on the two main governing parameters namely temperature different and Seebeck coefficient toward power generated. It was found that only some amount of excess heat was converted which produced up to 46.8 mW electrical power. This is based on the high temperature recorded at the cold side of the TEG. The almost constant trend showed in temperature different was contributed to a small magnitude of the Seebeck coefficient and so for the power generated. The trend showed by the power generated was also almost constant even the temperature on the hot side keep increasing. The energy conversion process was considered success and can be further increased by increasing the number of TEG units used as well as by incorporating a cooling mechanism as practiced by many researchers.