Hydrocarbon combustion powered micro thermoelectric generator with an inverted T-shape heat collector

Abstract

The battery greatly accelerates flourishing of interconnection and intercommunication, even though it has been long suffered by the low energy density and long charging time. Hydrocarbon combustion powered micro-thermoelectric generator is a promising alternative to batteries due to its solid-state energy conversion and high energy density. Detail literature reviews revealed that no previous combustion powered thermoelectric generator is able to generate an electric power greater than 50 W with an overall efficiency higher than 3.5 %. In this study, a blower-assisted swirl combustor and an inverted T-shape heat collector are first proposed to simultaneously augment the overall efficiency and electric power to 4.11 % and 76.3 W, respectively. The power density of the proposed thermoelectric generator reaches 5088 W/m² on the basis of the area of the thermoelectric module, which is achieved by releasing the power generation potential of the thermoelectric module to a degree of 89.6 %. In addition, a lumped thermoelectric model is developed and combined with turbulent fluid flow, combustion reaction, and heat transfer models to analyze the working principle of the inverted T-shape heat collector. Detail comparisons and comprehensive discussions on power density, power magnitude, and overall efficiency with previous studies are made. The present work provides a concrete method to design a high-performance hydrocarbon combustion powered micro-thermoelectric generator.