LAPSE:2019.1077
Postprint
LAPSE:2019.1077
High frequency injection maximum power point tracking for thermoelectric generators
Romina Rodriguez, Jing Guo, Matthias Preindl, James S. Cotton, Ali Emadi
October 9, 2019
Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) can harvest thermal energy from waste heat sources to supply various power levels due to the Seebeck effect. The power generated by a TEG is dependent not only on the temperature difference across them but also on the electrical load applied. Typically, waste heat sources have variable operating conditions which means maximum power point tracking (MPPT) must be employed through the use of power converters to produce the desired operating point of the system and thus increase the system efficiency. This paper presents a new MPPT scheme which has not been previously applied to thermoelectric generators, the high frequency injection (HFI) scheme to achieve a fast and accurate tracking of the maximum power operation point for TEGs. The proposed MPPT scheme is implemented with a power converter, and the tracking scheme performance is experimentally evaluated on a commercial TEG module through three different experiments. The proposed scheme is also compared to the most commonly used MPPT scheme for TEGs, Perturb & Observe. The experimental results show that the tracking efficiency of the proposed MPPT scheme is 99.73% at steady-state compared to the 90% tracking efficiency achieved by the Perturb & Observe scheme, as well as a 3 times faster dynamic response compared to the fastest method recorded in literature.
Keywords
DC-DC power converter, Energy harvesting, High frequency injection (HFI), Maximum power point tracking (MPPT), Perturb & observe (P&O), Thermoelectric generator (TEG)
Suggested Citation
Rodriguez R, Guo J, Preindl M, Cotton JS, Emadi A. High frequency injection maximum power point tracking for thermoelectric generators. (2019). LAPSE:2019.1077
Author Affiliations
Rodriguez R: McMaster University
Guo J: BorgWarner Inc – Waterloo Technical Center
Preindl M: Columbia University,
Cotton JS: McMaster University
Emadi A: McMaster University
Journal Name
Energy Conversion and Management
Volume
198
Issue
111832
Year
2019
Publication Date
2019-07-13
Version Comments
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Oct 9, 2019
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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