Consideration of Thermoelectric Power Generation by Using Hot Spring Thermal Energy or Industrial Waste Heat

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• 作者：Keiichi Sasaki ; Daisuke Horikawa ; Koichi Goto
• 关键词：Waste heat recovery ; unharnessed thermal energy ; temperature difference ; natural heat source ; hot springs ; thermoelectric power generator ; totally self ; contained power supply
• 刊名：Journal of Electronic Materials
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：January 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：44
• 期：1
• 页码：391-398
• 全文大小：1,551 KB
• 参考文献：1. Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, / Distribution Map and Catalogue if Hot and mineral Springs in Japan, 2nd ed. (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 2005).
  2. T. Shindoh, et al., / TOSHIBA Rev. 63, 7-0 (2008).
  3. Y. Itoh, et al., / Personal Distributed Energy System, Vol. 131 (Tokyo: Yokendo, 2004).
  
• 刊物类别：Chemistry and Materials Science
• 刊物主题：Chemistry
  Optical and Electronic Materials
  Characterization and Evaluation Materials
  Electronics, Microelectronics and Instrumentation
  Solid State Physics and Spectroscopy
  
• 出版者：Springer Boston
• ISSN：1543-186X

文摘

Today, we face some significant environmental and energy problems such as global warming, urban heat island, and the precarious balance of world oil supply and demand. However, we have not yet found a satisfactory solution to these problems. Waste heat recovery is considered to be one of the best solutions because it can improve energy efficiency by converting heat exhausted from plants and machinery to electric power. This technology would also prevent atmospheric temperature increases caused by waste heat, and decrease fossil fuel consumption by recovering heat energy, thus also reducing CO2 emissions. The system proposed in this research generates electric power by providing waste heat or unharnessed thermal energy to built-in thermoelectric modules that can convert heat into electric power. Waste heat can be recovered from many places, including machinery in industrial plants, piping in electric power plants, waste incineration plants, and so on. Some natural heat sources such as hot springs and solar heat can also be used for this thermoelectric generation system. The generated power is expected to be supplied to auxiliary machinery around the heat source, stored as an emergency power supply, and so on. The attributes of this system are (1) direct power generation using hot springs or waste heat; (2) 24-h stable power generation; (3) stand-alone power system with no noise and no vibration; and (4) easy maintenance attributed to its simple structure with no moving parts. In order to maximize energy use efficiency, the temperature difference between both sides of the thermoelectric (TE) modules built into the system need to be kept as large as possible. This means it is important to reduce thermal resistance between TE modules and heat source. Moreover, the system’s efficiency greatly depends on the base temperature of the heat sources and the material of the system’s TE modules. Therefore, in order to make this system practical and efficient, it is necessary to choose the heat source first and then design the most appropriate structure for the source by applying analytical methods. This report describes how to design a prototype of a thermoelectric power generator using the analytical approach and the results of performance evaluation tests carried out in the field.