Sustainable Energy: Linfeng Zhang

Sustainable Energy
Linfeng Zhang
Chapter 5 Thermoelectricity
At atomic scale (specifically, charge carriers), an applied

temperature gradient causes charged carriers in the material,
whether they are electrons or holes, to diffuse from the hot side
to the cold side, similar to a classical gas that expands when
heated; hence, the thermally induced current.
Thermoelectric effect is also called the Peltier–Seebeck effect.

5.1 Seebeck effect
Temperature difference
Electric voltage
o A junction consists of two dissimilar metallic conductors.

o The junction and the other two ends are kept at different
temperatures.
o A small electric current flows in a closed circuit.
o Seebeck voltage is the open circuit voltage
Are they the same?
TH TC
A thermocouple
Thermocouple
Seebeck voltage and coefficient
α is the Seebeck coefficient. V =< α > ∆T

mean Seebeck Coefficient
Seebeck Coefficient for Most Metals (μV/K)
Temperature: 300K
α
= SB − S A
Standardized Thermocouple Pairs
Applications
• thermometers
• Generators, to transform heat directly into
electricity
• heat pumps
Thermocouples can be connected in
series forming a battery
Thermopile
• sensor
The sensor is composed of 116 elements of thermocouple

in series with blacken surface to absorb the incident
thermal infrared radiation, which induces a voltage
response at output terminals.
5.2 The Peltier Effect
Electric voltage
Temperature difference TC
TH
 A junction of two dissimilar metals

 An electric current
 Heat is liberated or absorbed depending on the direction of
the electric current
π = αT
Where π is called Peltier coefficient.
Commercial cooler
Igloo Kool Mate 56-Quart Thermoelectric Cooler

No compressor
No noise
How about efficiency?
Steady state
Variables don’t change with the time.
Qin Qout
Q gen
If the subject is in its steady state, its temperature should

be constant.
Qin + Qgen =
Qout
Calculation
Heat conduction
The ends of the heat-conducting bar are at two different temperatures.
Assume: heat only transfers through two end faces
At steady state:
TH
PHF Λ (TH − TC )
PHF = Λ (TH − TC )
− PCF =
lambda
• Λ is the heat conductance (W/K).

Thermal/heat conductivity (λ)
Material Thermal conductivity
(W/m.K)
Silver 420
copper 401
gold 317
aluminum 237
Iron 80
Lead 35
dT
q = −λ
dx
(T1 − T2 )
q=λ
L
Aλ
P= − ∆T = −Λ∆T
L
Heat by current
• If the bar is at uniform temperature but is heated (by

a current) to a higher temperature than that of the
bodies in contact with the two end faces, then heat
must flow out.
• The heat power generated by the current is I2R,
where R is the resistance of the bar.
• Half of this generated heat will flow out one end and
half the other.
• R is the resistance
Heat conduction + heat by current
TC
TH
• R is the resistance
Positive
Negative
1 2
PC = −Λ (TH − TC ) − RI
2
+
− RI 2
PH + PC =
Heat conduction + heat by current
+ Peltier effect
1 2
Λ (TH − TC ) + π I − RI
PH =
2
TH TC
2
1/2RI
PHF Λ (TH − TC )
πI
The Thermoelectric Generator
The electric resistance
The heat conductance

The heat power supplied by the heat source (hot end):
input
The current
The electric power delivered to the external load
Electric power output

The efficiency of the device
If
Where, Z is a figure of merit (k-1):
Question: How to determine Z and m to have a high efficiency?

To obtain a large Z
(1) choose materials for the thermocouple arms that have large
Seebeck coefficients
(2) Make the ΛR product as small as possible
Trade-off:
o If the arms are short and have a large cross section, then the
resistance, R, tends to be small, but the heat conductance, Λ,
tends to be correspondingly large.
o If the arms are long and have a small cross section, the heat
conductance tends to be small, but the resistance, R, tends to be
correspondingly large.
There is an optimum geometry with minimum ΛR product.
To minimize ΛR in Z
For a given choice of materials, is fixed.
A minimum ΛR occurs when is minimum.

Therefore, the minimum is
m
Mean temperature
Highest η*
Example
A thermoelectric generator is to furnish 100kW at 115 V. Input
temperature is 1500 K, while the output is at 1000 K.
The characteristics of materials of the thermocouple are:

1. Seebeck coefficient, averaged over the temperature range of
interest: 0.0005V/K
2. Electric resistivity of arm A: 0.002Ωcm
3. Electric resistivity of arm B: 0.003Ωcm
4. Thermal conductivity of arm A: 0.032Wcm−1 K−1
5. Thermal conductivity of arm B: 0.021Wcm−1 K−1
6. Maximum allowable current density: 100Acm−2
To simplify the construction, arms A and B must have equal
length (but not necessarily equal cross section).
Questions
1. the maximum thermal efficiency

2. the number of thermocouples in series
3. the dimensions of the arms
4. the open-circuit voltage
Solution
If there are n thermocouples, each with a resistance, R,
To find n, we must know R.

For maximum efficiency,
RL = mRbatt, or RL =mnR, and
m
= 1+ T Z
Here, R is the resistance of each thermocouple

Rbatt is the resistance of the whole battery—nR.
We will need a total of 768 thermocouples.
Heat
Λbatt = nΛ because all the thermocouples are thermally in parallel.

Efficiency
Since the length of the two arms is the same,
For Jmax =100 A cm−2, the smaller of the two cross sections, AA,
must be equal to 870/100=8.7 cm2. The larger cross section must
be AB =1.51 × 8.7=13.1 cm2. The resistance of each individual
thermocouple is
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Sustainable Energy

At atomic scale (specifically, charge carriers), an applied

Thermoelectric effect is also called the Peltier–Seebeck effect.

o A junction consists of two dissimilar metallic conductors.

α is the Seebeck coefficient. V =< α > ∆T

The sensor is composed of 116 elements of thermocouple

 A junction of two dissimilar metals

Igloo Kool Mate 56-Quart Thermoelectric Cooler

If the subject is in its steady state, its temperature should

• Λ is the heat conductance (W/K).

• If the bar is at uniform temperature but is heated (by

The heat conductance

The electric power delivered to the external load

Electric power output

Where, Z is a figure of merit (k-1):

Question: How to determine Z and m to have a high efficiency?

For a given choice of materials, is fixed.

A minimum ΛR occurs when is minimum.

The characteristics of materials of the thermocouple are:

1. the maximum thermal efficiency

If there are n thermocouples, each with a resistance, R,

To find n, we must know R.

RL = mRbatt, or RL =mnR, and

Here, R is the resistance of each thermocouple

Λbatt = nΛ because all the thermocouples are thermally in parallel.

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