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Sarinee Ouitrakul
Department of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering at Sriracha, Kasetsart University Si Racha Campus
Chonburi, Thailand
sarinee@eng.src.ku.ac.th
Abstract—This paper presents a preliminary study of typically, also semiconductor properties to convert heat into
electricity generation using Peltier modules. Ceramic electricity or electrical power directly into cooling. A
thermoelectric cooling module (Peltier module), TEC1-12710 thermoelectric module consists of many thermocouples. A
model, was used as electricity generation. The experimental box thermocouple produces low voltage and high current. Thus, to
is a hardwood box and the inside is an aluminium box, which obtain high voltages, a number of thermocouples are connected
consists of hot and cold sides. The temperatures in a hot side and electrically in series and thermally in parallel to form a module.
a cold side were controlled by using heater and dry ice, The direct conversion of Peltier module from heat sources
respectively. Electrical parameters of the Peltier module in a looks like geothermal energy, solar energy or waste heat into
single module, series, parallel and mixed combination circuits
electrical energy. The main advantages of Peltier module are
were investigated at the temperature gradient of 10 degrees
Celsius. The results showed that the voltage, current and power
the low maintenance requirement, the high modularity and the
of a single module are 0.18V, 0.93A and 0.086W, respectively, at possibility of utilizing heat sources over a wide temperature
0.1 ohms. When two and four modules are combined in series, range. In addition, the more advantages of Peltier module are
the voltages of the modules are 2 and 4 times of a single module, no moving parts, no Freon refrigerant, no noise, no vibration,
respectively. In addition, 1.2 times of current is obtained from 4 compact, highly reliable, and environmentally friendly, etc.
parallel modules at the same condition. This paper describes a preliminary experiment on the
electricity generation from Peltier modules. The electrical
Keywords—peltier; thermoelectric generator; electricity
generator; alternative renewable energy; seebeck effect
generation of a single, series, parallel and mixed combination
circuits of Peltier module was investigated at 10 degrees
I. INTRODUCTION Celsius temperature gradient. The paper will proceed as
follows. In Section I, the testing of electrical generation from
Due to fuel price spike and global warming, several Peltier modules are proposed. In Section II, the background of
countries are now more interested in searching and developing thermoelectric system is mentioned. In Section III, the system
of the renewable energy sources. The use of thermoelectric overview of Peltier module experiment is provided. Section IV
power generators for electrical power generation at the low describes the results of the research and includes a discussion
temperature heat sources is one of the most important energy of the experimental data. Finally, the summary of the paper
sources. The enormous of wasting thermal energy (heat) could and the future works are presented in Section V.
be produced from various sources, such as factories,
transportation systems and even private houses or public II. THERMOELECTRIC DEVICE
buildings. Therefore, the utilization of direct heat to electricity
conversion plays an important role in determining an actual The basic of thermoelectric effects such as the Peltier effect
and acceptable performance. Many researchers [1-4] have and the Seebeck effect are used to explain the conversion of
been tried to improve in material sciences, develop the heat energy into electrical energy or vice versa.
generation system, and progress in nanotechnology for Thermoelectric generators using the Seebeck effect basically
bringing to the thermoelectric materials. In general, the work on a temperature gradient. When a steady temperature
efficiency of thermoelectric converters depends on the material gradient is maintained along a finite conductor, the free
parameters summarized in the figure of merit ZT [5]. carriers at the hot end will have greater kinetic energy and
Furthermore design aspects, especially, the leg length and heat tend to diffuse to the cold end. For any thermoelectric
transfer conditions have a significant influence on electrical generator, the voltage (V) generated by the thermoelectric
efficiency. Then, the challenge for the researcher is continuing generator is directly proportional to the number of couples (N)
to create a direct heat to electricity converter of high power, and the temperature gradient between the top and bottom sides
acceptable efficiency, and a relatively wide range of of the thermoelectric and the Seebeck coefficients of the n and
temperatures. p- type materials.
Fig. 3. Illustration of a experimental box (1) cold side (2) hot side (3) peltier (a) (b)
(4) wiring connections
B. Peltier
Commercial ceramic thermoelectric cooling module
(Peltier module), or TEC1-12710 modulle, was used as
electricity generators. It has 127 couples Peltier
P cooling and
89W of cooling power. The material is madee from the ceramic
substrate Sb Bi Se Te and Sn. The size andd weight of Peltier (c) (d)
are 4x4x0.33 cm and 25g, respectivelyy. The maximum
temperature gradient is 67 degree Celsiuus. The module Fig. 6. Schematic of the experimennt (a) series combination circuits (b)
resistance is 1.08 ohms at 25 degree Celsius.. Figure 4 shows parallel combination circuits (c) paralleel-series combination circuits (d) series-
the TEC1-12710 model. parallel combination circuits
Fig. 10. The generated power of single peltier verssus current (1ohms-
10Mohms) Fig. 13. The measured voltage of paralllel-peltier combination versus current
V. CONCLUSION
The study of the electrical generation of the Peltier module
has been proposed in this research. The single
s module can
generate the energy as expected. The maaximum electrical