International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Special Issue, Sep.

-2016

SMART POWER GENERATION FROM WASTE HEAT BY THERMO

ELECTRIC GENERATOR
1
PRASHANTHA.K, 2SONAM WANGO
1
Industrial Automation Engineering 2Electrical engineering Department, BCET, INDIA
Bangalore College of Engineering and Technology
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract- Generating electricity in present there is a shortage of fossil fuel, oil, gas, etc. burning of these fuels causes
environmental problem like radio activity pollution, global warming etc. So that these (coal, oil, gas) are the limiting
resources hence resulting new technology is needed for electricity generation, by using thermoelectric generators to generate
power as a most promising technology and environmental free and several advantages in production. Thermoelectric
generator can convert directly thermal (heat) energy into electrical energy. In this TEG there are no moving parts and it can
not be produce any waste during power production hence it is consider as a green technology. Thermoelectric power
generator convert direct waste heat in to generate electricity By this it eliminated emission so we can believe this green
technology. Thermoelectric power generation offer a potential application in the direct exchange of waste-heat energy into
electrical power where it is unnecessary to believe the cost of the thermal energy input .This method will have an maximum
outcome. The application of this option green technology in converting waste-heat energy directly into electrical power can
too improve the overall efficiencies of energy conversion systems. Heat source which is need for this conversion is less when
contrast to conventional methods. By using this energy is used to charge the mobile electronics

Keywords- Thermoelectric generator, seebeck effect, waste-heat recovery, alternative green technology, direct energy
conversion, thermocouple , thermal shield, thermoelectric materials, thermo electric module, thermal fin

I. INTRODUCTION TEG is used to convert thermal energy (heat) into

electricity based on “Seebeck effect” directly. Here
Recently we are depending upon fossil fuels for there is charge movement in the media. Advantages
maximum electricity generation. However, the of Thermoelectric power generators are.
reserves of fossil fuels will be goes on depleting, since
oil & gas are the least sources. Recent years .cost of - Small size and less weight. . - Green Technology. -
unit electricity has increasing to unpredictable levels increase the overall efficiency (5% to 8%). -
due the less supply of (oil gas coal). Thus the , green Alternative power sources of energy. - It require less
energies are more attractive artificial to electricity space and cost compare to other source
generation, as it will also provide a pollution free and waste heat to generate the power is to decrease the
cost less. In this innovative project, we are using one cost-per-unit of the devices.
device which is used to be created and introduced by
human as a renewable energy that is thermo electric TEG can be used in , Jet Engine parts, IC Engines
generator equipment to generate electricity As we parts, Furnace cover, Hot water tubes, Refrigerator
know Renewable energies are, solar energy, wind Computer/laptop Body heat etc
energy,hydro energy, tidal energy, etc. above energies
can produce electricity in different forms and way of
generating method. There are some disadvantages.
Solar cells are the most commonly used in
applications such as household industrial and
spacecraft electrical systems. However, if there is no
sun light there will no production of electricity
alternative sources are necessary for generating
electricity. or a method of storing energy for future
use. Wind and hydro electric energy have their own
drawback making them less power production and
insufficient for wider usage.. [3] Fig(a): Schematic of a thermoelectric generator
The device by converting heat energy to electrical
energy. This thermoelectric generator is suitable Theory and the technology
power for space research, Satellites and even un- when “electrons” are in motion, we have an
manned facilities. Satellites are settled at the planets electricalcurrent (i.e., charge per unit time per unit
that so for from the earth. For example, area).electrical voltage (“pressure”) usually is the
thermoelectric devices can be used in vehicles to driving force but, other forces like temperature
producing electricity using the waste heat of the difference andhence flow of thermal energy/heat can
engine also. [2] drive the electrons

Smart Power Generation From Waste Heat By Thermo Electric Generator

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International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Special Issue, Sep.-2016

Objective
The main aim of this project is to develop much
cleaner noise less cost effective different way of
power generation method for charging the battery as
well as to utilization proper only the requirement of
usage, which helps to reduces the global warming as
well as reduce the power shortages, load shedding
and also we can transfer the portable generating unit.
In this project the conversion of waste heat into
generate electricity by using thermoelectric generator.
background of the thermoelectric chip
Waste may refrigerator heat, vehicle radiator heat,
laptop heat, even body heat can be used as a input
In 1821, J. T. Seebeck (1770-1831) discovered that
source as a waste heat to generate electricity and it
dissimilar metals that are connected at two different
can be charged directly mobile battery and also stored
locations (junctions) will develop a micro-voltage if
the two junctions are held at different temperatures. in a rechargeable lead acid battery for further usage.
And also waste energy human body locomotion also
This effect is known as the "Seebeck effect"
produce electricity body weight locomotion of the
The use of both N and P type materials in a single energy in to electrical energy by using
electromagnetic induction principle. The control
power generation device allows us to truly optimize
mechanism carries regulator circuit etc and the power
the Seebeck effect. As shown in Fig. 1, the N and P
saving mechanism carries microcontroller relays etc.
pellets are configured thermally in parallel, but
1) Charge the mobile battery where ever waste heat is
electrically in a series circuit. Because electrical
obtained
current (i.e., moving electrons) flows in a direction
2) Maintain the heat transfer from hot side to cold
opposite to that of the hole flow, the current-
side because of uniform charging mobile battery
generating potentials in the pellets do not oppose one
3) Charge the 12v battery for further usage to
another, but are series-aiding. Thus, if each pellet
converting by using inverter to 220v
developed a Seebeck voltage of 20mV, this
combination of an N pellet and a P pellet would
generate approximately 40Mv III. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scopes of project study are;

II. PROBLEM DEFINITION
1) by using thermoelectric generator
Some developing countries and most populated connecting in series /parallel we can generate the
industrialized countries (India china Mongolia Korea) power for maximum level
etc. have average of 3 to 10 hours of daily power-cuts 2) even body heat also generate the heat that
because the increase in demand of consumer can be utilizing by using TEG to generate the power
utilization electricity exceeds so that the production to charge the portable equipment like laptop mobile
of electrical energy is lesser then the consumer etc
demand. And also shortage of fossil fuel and coal i.e. 3) by installed in the vehicle above the radiator
about 60% of electricity is generated from fossil means the vehicle battery will charge self
fuels. (Oil and gas) are imported from Arabian
countries. So that pollution also may occur due to the IV. LITERATURE SURVEY
combustion of this fossil fuel. And also the
generating the power from these conventional sources Method for generating power such as burning of
may lead to harmful environment and pollute the wood, petrol, diesel, coal, is continuously depleting
nature. with nature, so that exceeded usage of electricity
In the new generation they are depending upon the according to the consumer demand.
rechargeable batteries or diesel /petrol engine etc. Global warming is the increase in the
when there is no power and at the time of load average measured temperature of the Earth's near
shedding. The use of generator is common in surface air and Oceans since the mid-20th century,
industrial and commercial sector. This ultimately and its projected continuation. Global surface
increases the shortage of power and more cost. temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F)
And also the people are not utilizing the power during the
properly they were unnecessarily wasting the power
and they are not designing the power consumption Thomas Jon Seebeck (1934) invented that a
properly hence basically a low power production in temperature formed between two dissimilar
that also wasting means in the future we live without conductors produces a voltage and current. At the
light Now a days consumer demand is more then the heart of the thermoelectric generator effect is the fact
power production that is the major difficulty to that a temperature difference in a conducting material
overcome. results in heat flow between one side to another side

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International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Special Issue, Sep.-2016

V. BLOCK DIAGRAM connections based on the different temperatures. In

case of a Peltier cooler module the Seebeck voltage
This section gives the brief description of each can be determined by 1
component used in designing the waste heat to VS =α (Th −Tc) (1)
generate electricity By using this thermoelectric where Th-Tc is the temp difference between heat
power generation (TEPG) TEC12706 devices shown applied and cold side of TEG.
When ever heating of one surface (waste heat TEG components
example refrigerator outer surface heat, laptop heat, 1. Thermoelectric internal elements
ion box heat, solar radiation heat ,even human body 2. Thermoelectric covering
heat) is also an input of thermo electric generator. 3. Thermal withstanding 4. Copper wire
When heat is applied one side there will be a
continuous electron or holes will flow continuously
based on the temperature of heat. If the temperature is
increases the voltage is also increases vice verse in
such a way that the other side of thermoelectric
generator is cold because heat transform is uniform
then only electron will flow and voltage is developed
Fig, thermoelectric generator with fin heat sink
at the output side of the thermoelectric generator
VI. CIRCUIT DIAGRAM AND WORKING BY
USING TEG

Fig, block diagram Voltage regulator (control circuit)

In this part voltage from the TEG is regulated by

required voltage for mobile charger
Mobile battery
After the regulated voltage is passed to the battery
Fig (a); Circuit diagram Figure 1;5 Volt From 1.5 Volt Circuit
terminal to charge the mobile so that the required Schematic
specification is 3.8 v li-ion batteries 5.70wh is
required. Finally the mobile battery will charge under The MAX756/MAX757 are CMOS step-up DC-DC
desired voltage condition switching regulators for small, low input voltage or
LED (light emitting diode) battery-powered systems. The MAX756 accepts a
Led indicates that mobile battery is charging or not if positive input voltage down to 0.7V and converts it to
the led will not glow means there is no power at the a higher pin-selectable output voltage of 3.3V or 5V.
output side and also the battery will not get charging. The MAX757 is an adjustable version that accepts an
Inverter Used for to convert variable dc to fixed ac input voltage down to 0.7V and generates a higher
Thermoelectric generator construction and working adjustable output voltage in the range from 2.7V to
principle: 5.5V. Typical full-load efficiencies for the
A thermoelectric generator is a solid state flexible MAX756/MAX757 are greater than 87%.
device that consists of a P-type and N-type
semiconductor particle arranged in series, shown in Max756 combine a switch-mode regulator with an N-
Figure When heat is applied to one surface of the channel MOSFET, precision voltage reference, and
thermoelectric generator (hot side), N-type (electrons) power-fail detector in a single monolithic device. The
semiconductor and the holes in the p-type MOSFET is a “sense-FET” type for best efficiency,
semiconductor will moves out.This movement of and has a very low gate threshold voltage to ensure
electrons and holes that forms charge. A start-up under low-battery voltage conditions (1.1V
thermoelectric generator can be connected in series, typ).
which increases the voltage, the current. The circuit can be easily wired on a very small
rectangular common PCB.All connections should be
kept as short as possible. If available,try to add a
good quality 8 pin DIP socket for IC1. Note that the
power inductor’s (L1) DC resistance significantly
Fig. Schematic diagram of a thermoelectric generator. affects efficiency. For highest efficiency, limit L1’s
Seebeck Effect Jon seebeck invented the DC resistance to 0.03 Ohm or less. A thru-hole type
new designed circuit consisting of two (cold and hot standard power inductor can be used. Similarly, the
side) different thermal conducting materials, whose ESR of all capacitors (bypass and filter) affects

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International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Special Issue, Sep.-2016

circuit efficiency. Best performance is obtained by into account 10 C temperature loss on both the hot and
using specialized low-ESR capacitors. cold end of the thermoelectric for heat transfer
We tested five different modules with
VII.TEST ANALYSIS different semi-conduct materials in order to find the
TEG with the maximum output at a specific
Testing by using waste heat as a iron box temperature difference. Fig. 1 shows the schematic of
A)Complete setup to charge the mobile battery by the module tests. The TEG module was clamped
using thermoelectric generator tightly in between two containers, one was the hot
side with a high temperature and another was the cold
side with a low temperature

Fig(a) charging the sample mobile battery using TEG by waste

heat
complete setup to charge the mobile battery is shown
in fig 4.5, When heat is applied to the hot side the
TEG get absorb the heat from any body (ex- Fig. a) shows the schematic of the module tests.
refrigerator heat, laptop heat, heat from the vehicle,
solar heat, and even human body is also a waste heat We kept the temperature on the hot side at about
source for TEG). 200°C by using a digital thermostat oil bath and used
Under this when heat absorbs one side it rejected at the tap water as the cooling liquid on the cold side
the other side (cold side) heat transfer take place from with a temperature of about 20°C. The temperatures of
hot surface to cold surface. So that the electron will both hot and cold sides were measured and the results
flow to through copper conductor to the complete are shown in graph. The temperature was measured
circuit so voltage will be regulated at the circuit. The using two micro-thermocouples with very thin tips.
required power for the mobile battery is 3.8 volt it is The temperature on the hot side of the modules was
at the output terminal at the circuit is as shown in the stabilized at about 180°C and that on the cold side at
fig a about 40°C. The increase in the temperature on the
As it is heat transfer take place from heat cold side from 20 to 40°C was because of the heat
applied side to cold side. These thermoelectric conduction from the hot side through the TEG
generators of two terminals are to connected i.e. modules. The temperature difference was stabilized at
positive terminal is connected to diode side and the around 140°C. The results illustrate that the test
other terminal is connected to ground Circuit system for thermoelectric power generation was stable
elements consist of Diode (BY127),Potentiometer
(10kpot),Capacitor (50micro farad),Zener
diode(6v),LED (3.5v),Mobile battery (3.8v)
When heat is applied to the hot side under
certain temperature (30 to 300 degree C) electrical
power from heat flow across a hot to cold side
temperature gradient.. more thermoelectric generator c)Test analysis from burner
need to be connected in cascade to make the Fundamentally, there are four basic
maximum voltage. Thermoelectric device diode components in a te-powered generator: a heat source,
eliminates the reverse flow of electron to the thermo a te, a ‘cold-side’ heat sink, and an electrical load.
electric generator so that continuously electron will the system may also include a voltage
flow through diode when applied heat to the TEG. regulation circuit or a fan for the heat sink.
Potentiometer is used to control the fig.(a)shows one example of such a system.
voltage.Zener diode helps to eliminate the excess
voltage flow to the battery because battery required to
charge.
LED (light emitting diode) is shows the
battery is charging or not and it ill glow when the
output voltage is above 3.5 volt and
fig.(a)shows one example of such a system.
b) Test analysis by waste heat from boiler tube
The exhaust of flue gasses sounds very interesting.
VIII. RESULT ANALYSIS
We believe the efficiency of such a system would be
Primarily waste heat is used to charge the battery. the
in the range of 10.6% for QW of Si/SiGe. This takes
system is tested to meet the desired objectives and the
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International Journal of Mechanical And Production Engineering, ISSN: 2320-2092, Special Issue, Sep.-2016

results obtained. For the analysis a T.E.G was putted  Clean, Noise less #, Cost is less #This is a
on a hot chamber plate (body heat or iron box I am Non-conventional system # #No fuel is require #Easy
using here to get fast output and the aluminum heat maintenance # portable# Charging time is less
sink square shaped is placed on the top side (maximum temp)
(40x40x40) dimension. Heat sink of the other side of  Promising technology for solving power crisis to
the thermoelectric generator (cold side) an affordable extent.# Simple in construction.
The hot plate (iron box) is sated at different  Pollution free.# Reduces transmission losses.
temperature ranging from 30℃to220℃. So that to  Wide areas of application# Required less space
know the voltage and current by using multi meter  It ca
that was produced by this TEG. by using  n be use at any time when it necessary.
thermometer to determine the applied temperature  Less number of parts required. # we can charge
exactly on the hot side of the TEG and cold side. The any electronic devices
equation is gives to calculate the temperature of the Electricity can used for many purposes # efficient
T.E.G. and eliminate the grid searching
Equation is given by
Temperature (▲T) = Temperature Hot (Th) – DISADVANTAGES
Temperature Cold (tC) Improper variation of temperature gradient difference
may damage the TEG, Complex design
CONCLUSION
APPLICATIONS
Present method for electricity generation is Thermoelectric Generators are basically used in
converting thermal energy into mechanical energy by where the power production is less.
turbine then into electricity by using generator. In automobile vehicle produce heat that can be used
Burning of these fuels causes environmental problem for generating electricity by using TEG.
like radio activity pollution, global warming. hence Recharge the battery where ever waste heat is
(coal, oil, gas) are the limiting resources resulting obtained .Self charging battery by fixing the TEG at
new technology is needed. The project paper is tested radiator or two wheeler silencers pipe
and implemented. The system gives the best
economical pollution free, required energy solution to SCOPE OF THE FUTURE WORK
the people.  By using proper heat sink material help to
Two power generators have been built using increase the output voltage.
TEG modules and tested. The power of the first one  Using long proper heat sink material is to
could reach about 500 W (predicted using avoid the heat in between the gap of fins.
experimental data) with a temperature difference of  By addition of the more TEG in SERIES is
about 200°C between hot and cold sides. to increase the voltage
This work can be used for many applications
in urban and rural areas where power availability is REFERENCE
less or totally absence. By making this system
generates and charge 12v which is capable to [1]. D. Flahaut, T. Mihara and R. Funahashi, N. Nabeshima, K.
recharge a mobile. it avoiding dependency of grid Lee, H. Ohta and K. Koumoto, JOURNAL PHYSICS 100,
supply. This is a Promising technology for solving 0=184911 (2006)
[2]. Il-Ho Kim1, Soon-Mok Choi, Won-Seon Seo and Dong-Ik
power crisis to an affordable extent Cheong, Kim et al. Nanoscale Research Letters 2012, 7:2
[3]. Driss Kenfaui, Guillaume Bonnefont , Daniel Chateigner ,
ADVANTAGES Gilbert Fantozzi ,Moussa Gomina, Jacques Guillaume
Noudem, Materials Research Bulletin 45 (2010) 1240–1249

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