Experimental evaluation of the performance of a thermoelectric generator energy recovery system in an adapted vertical configuration

In this work, thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are used to recover electrical energy from the configuration of a vertical combustor. An experimental test rig was developed using locally sourced materials, and thermoelectric generators were evaluated for a case of single versus multiple connected units. The Taguchi method was used in assessing the factors of temperature, airspeed, and ducting configurations and the results indicate that the impact of temperature and airspeed on the performance of the TEGs was statistically significant while the ducting configurations produced a secondary effect. A large TEG produced lower power output than an array of six smaller TEGs, suggesting that improvements can be achieved if designed for equal-sized p-n junctions. Scaling the TEGs up to a full combustor can generate up to 100watts but the power needed to provide forced cooling will offset the output power therefore, alternative cold-side heat rejection approaches should be investigated.