Study of the performance of a thermoelectric generator transformation of the thermal energy conveyed by a heat transfer fluid into electrical energy

A mathematical model to predict the maximum energy conversion efficiency of the thermoelectric generator is developed to improve the performance and maximize the energy conversion efficiency of the thermoelectric power generator. The studied device corresponds to an original configuration of thermoelectric modules mounted on the peripheral surfaces of two channels, one of the channels is crossed by hot fluid and the other by a cold fluid. First, the effect of the flow rate was studied to choose the flow rate adapted to our study for three different configurations of the thermopile, the co-current configuration, the counter-current configuration, and the sandwich configuration. Then a comparison was made to choose the best configuration between these three studied configurations by addressing their thermoelectric performances. The results revealed that the sandwich configuration is much better than the co-current and counter-current configurations and reduces the surface area occupied by the TEG by half while generating more power than a solar panel.