Computational Simulation of Thermoelectric Generators in Marine Power Plants

Abstract

In thermoelectric generation applications, the two indispensable conditions are the hot source and the cold source to provide the temperature difference for the generator. Thus, the waste heat recovery from various high temperature gas or steam turbines on ships by thermoelectric generators (TEG) is promising because the ocean naturally plays a role as an infinitely large cold source. Among other options, a pilot study of the applicability of thermoelectric generation to the boiler section of marine power plants is presented through CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) modeling. It is found that more than 600 W power may be produced from the waste heat of a 300 kW boiler but without an obvious loss of the system safety.

Design and Numerical Evaluation of Cascade-Type Thermoelectric Modules

“…The detailed algorithm and method for applying the TE numerical model to FLUENT were reported in Ref. [11,12], and the TE model was demonstrated in previous studies [3,13]. However, the numerical model here is not completely consistent with Ref.…”

“…Thermoelectric (TE) generation based on the Seebeck effect can directly convert heat into electricity. A TE generation system has the advantage of not requiring a large-scale system and has been studied as a way to recover unused heat, such as waste heat from automobiles [1], fuel cells [2], and marine engines [3], as well as solar heat [4,5].…”

Dimensional Analysis of Thermoelectric Modules Under Constant Heat Flux

“…However, because the temperature distribution is not homogeneous over the TE module, it is impossible to solve the simultaneous derivative equations in the analytical way as reported previously [12,13]. In this work the simultaneous derivative equations are numerically evaluated, based on the well-studied finite-volume method (FVM) and an original routine as the simultaneous solver among heat transfer and thermo-electric transportation phenomena [4,[14][15][16][17][18][19]. This routine was 6 originally developed by Chen et al [16,17] and implanted to our group.…”

“…Because TEG does not require a large-scale system, it has been studied as a method to recover unused heat [1], such as waste heat from automobiles [2], fuel cells [3] and marine engines [4], as well as solar heat [5,6]. Solar power generation using silicon photoelectric cells converts the solar energy at a wide range of wavelengths, but the energy from the longer waves in the infrared region is not used efficiently [7].…”

Thermoelectric Generation Using Water Lenses

“…A TE generation system has the advantage of not requiring a large-scale system and has been studied as a way to recover unused heat, such as waste heat from automobiles [1], fuel cells [2], and marine engines [3], as well as solar heat [4,5]. The solar light generation using silicon photoelectric cell covers a wide range of wave length of the solar radiation, but energy from the longer waves in the infrared area is not converted completely, and the residual component of infrared ray was not satisfactorily used.…”