Thermoelectric-Driven Autonomous Sensors for a Biomass Power Plant

Abstract

This work presents the design and development of a thermoelectric generator intended to harness waste heat in a biomass power plant, and generate electric power to operate sensors and the required electronics for wireless communication. The first objective of the paper is to design the optimum thermoelectric generator to harness heat from a hot surface, and generate electric power to operate a flowmeter and a wireless transmitter. The process is conducted by using a computational model, presented in previous papers, to determine the final design that meets the requirements of electric power consumption and number of transmissions per minute. Finally, the thermoelectric generator is simulated to evaluate its performance. The final device transmits information every five seconds. Moreover, it is completely autonomous and can be easily installed, since no electric wires are required.

Influence of Temperature and Aging on the Thermal Contact Resistance in Thermoelectric Devices

“…Previous works of our research group, both on thermoelectric refrigeration [18] and thermoelectric power generation [19], [20], [21], made evident that a precise characterization of the TIM is required in thermoelectric systems. To describe the thermal characterization method and further selection of the TIM, the conditions described in [19] have been adopted. That paper presents a real thermoelectric generator that harvest heat from the hot gases in a chimney, as can be seen in Fig.…”

An overview of Turkey's renewable energy trend

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A case study of PV-wind-diesel-battery hybrid system

“…There is a shift towards renewable energy sources in humans due to reasons such as the increase in electricity demand (depending on the ever-increasing population and unavoidable technological advances), the ecological disadvantages (global warming based on emission gases) caused by the energy obtained from fossil sources, and the decrease in the cost of energy generated from renewable depending on the technological developments over time [1,[4][5][6][7]. Mankind has been aware of renewable energy for a long time and using it for many purposes.…”