Studying the applicability of different thermoelectric materials for efficiency calculation in hybrid thermoelectric generator for waste heat recovery from automobile and steel industry

TL;DR

This paper evaluates various thermoelectric materials and their hybrid combinations for efficient waste heat recovery in automobiles, steel industry, and spacecraft, demonstrating significant efficiency improvements over single materials.

Contribution

It introduces a hybridization technique considering compatibility factors to enhance thermoelectric generator efficiency across different temperature ranges.

Findings

Hybrid TEGs achieve up to 17.2% efficiency.

Efficiency increases from 6-7% to over 15% with hybridization.

Materials suitable for different temperature ranges identified.

Abstract

In this work, we study the suitability of different thermoelectric materials like $Bi_2Te_3$, $Sb_{2}Te_{3}$, $PbTe$, $TAGS$, $CeFe_{4}Sb_{12}$, $SiGe$ and $TiO_{1.1}$ in estimation of thermoelectric generator's (TEG) efficiency. The efficiency of TEG made up of ${Be_{2}Te_{3}}$ or $Sb_{2}Te_{3}$ gives $\sim$7\% in temperature range of 310 K - 500 K. $PbTe$ or $TAGS$ or $CeFe_{4}Sb_{12}$ gives $\sim$6\% in temperature range of 500 K - 900 K and $SiGe$ or $TiO_{1.1}$ also have remarkable efficiency in higher temperature range i.e $\sim$1200 K. Here, we report the enhancement of efficiency by using hybridization technique for different combination of above-mentioned materials. Hybridization of two different materials of TEG module is done by considering compatibility factor aspect. To this end, the proposed values of overall efficiency of TEG by hybridizing ${Be_{2}Te_{3}}$ and $PbTe$; ${Be_{2}Te_{3}}$ and $TAGS$; $Bi_{2}Te_{3}$ and $CeFe_{4}Sb_{12}$ are 12\%, 14\% and 11.88\%, respectively, for temperature range of 310 K to 900 K, which can be installed in an automobile. For steel industry and spacecraft application (till 1200 K) hybridization of $Bi_{2}Te_{3}$, $PbTe$ and $SiGe$; ${Be_{2}Te_{3}}$ and $TiO_{1.1}$ yields efficiency of $\sim$15.2\% and $\sim$17.2\%, respectively. The proposed results can be treated as a viable option for engineers, who are looking for fabricating TEG in real life applications such as automobile, spacecraft and steel industry.