Internal Combustion Engine Exhaust Waste Heat Recovery Using Thermoelectric Generator Heat Exchanger

Abstract

Heat engine converts chemical engine available in fuel to useful mechanical energy. One of the most famous heat engines is internal combustion (IC) engine. IC engine plays a pivotal role in transportation and other industrial applications. A lot of waste heat is rejected from a typical IC engine as the conversion efficiency of this type of engine is only about 35-40 %. The waste heat has the potential to be tapped and converted into useful energy. This can help to increase the performance of the IC engine system. This work focused on the conversion of the waste heat energy of the IC engine into electricity by using thermoelectric generator (TEG). The aim of the project was to demonstrate the applicability of TEG to convert waste heat from exhaust to useful electrical energy. Two TEGs were individually tested to attain the electrical characterization and also tested on series and parallel connections. The study showed that the series connection of TEGs has improved and increased voltage generation but parallel connection is more reliable. The system proved that the waste heat recovery using TEGs has tremendous application in IC engine for better and higher efficient engine performance.