Effect of Operating Parameters on Performance of TEG Used in VCR Diesel Engine

In this paper, waste heat from an engine is converted into electricity using a thermoelectric generator (TEG). The generated electricity from TEG is in the form of direct current (DC) source, which can be applied for various applications such as to charge portable MP3 player and cell phone, to charge battery. The engine set up used for this experiment is computerized VCR single cylinder four-stroke water-cooled diesel engine. A TEG with thermoelectric material of Bismuth Telluride (Bi2Te3) at proper dimensions was fabricated and coupled with the exhaust pipe of an engine. The placement of TEG is done in such a way that more heat can be absorb from exhaust gas. Heat transfer was improved by using 12 number of aluminum fins having dimensions of 40 mm × 40 mm × 10 mm which are placed at the hot side of TEG. The experiment was conducted by varying the load ranging from low load considering the mass flow rate of gas as 0.03695 kg/s to full load 0.06792 kg/s that has direct effect on voltage output. The open circuit voltage of individual thermoelectric module was recorded. The water flow rates in engine for cooling and calorimeter was fixed at 80 lph by adjusting floats of rotameter. The effect of water flow rates on performance of the engine and TEG were discussed and presented.