Development of Thermoelectric Energy Harvester for Energy Utilization Improvement of Organic Rankine Cycle

Abstract

In this study, the energy utilization rate of liquid dehumidification systems with organic cooling cycle, a kind of cogeneration that produces both thermal and electrical energy, was simulated using thermoelectric devices to recover waste heat that was not used and discarded. The scope of the study was limited to the summer months when the heat energy demand was low and the energy recovery performance of the thermal module-based energy harvester was applied to liquid dehumidification systems with organic cooling cycles was verified. Prior to this, the power generation performance of parallel flow and counter flow was analyzed for directional selection of the fluid entering the thermal module energy harvester. The experiment showed that the counter flow had 9% more power generation. Calculate the minimum number of thermocouples required for normal operation of organic Rankine cycles and previous system. The minimum number of thermocouples is determined by the cooling volume of hot water for normal operation of the organic cooling cycle. The larger the surface area of a thermoelectric element, the larger the area of heat exchange between cold and hot sources, the more cooling water becomes. The arrangement and design of thermoelectric devices were presented by the calculated number of thermoelectric modules, suggesting a form listing 118 thermoelectric modules in 10 rows. Based on the proposed form, the temperature to be applied on both sides of each thermoelectric module according to the flow of cold and hot sources was calculated to derive the total power generation volume and the total amount of waste heat recovery during the summer period was verified. The analysis results showed that the heat module energy harvester application system compared to the liquid dehumidification system with the existing organic Rankine cycle derived an additional 7% electrical generation.