Department of Energy and Environment System Engineering, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou 310023, Zhejiang Province, China
Abstract:
In order to supply electricity in off-grid areas and under emergency conditions such as fire accident, earthquake, and snow disaster, a water-cooled thermoel-ectric generator was designed, which can be fueled with wood, charcoal and other biomass, and it is featured by the incorporation of a radial-shaped heat collector. The ther-moelectric generator, weighting of 23.3 kg, incorporates a DC-DC converter to stabilize the output voltage. The start-up performance, no-load characteristic and power load feature of the thermoelectric generator were studied in detail. Results show that the average temperature difference is approximate 68℃, and the maximum no-load voltage reached 116.3 V. In loaded case, the electric power output decreases with the external load resistance. The maximum electric power output is found to be 22.4 W when the external load resistance is 1.6 Ω; and the thermoelectric generator is not able to output electricity steadily when the external load is reduced hereby.
