Energy Recovery from Ice Waste Heat Using Thermoelectric Generators

In recent times, people pay more attention to global warming because they realise its impact on the environment and human life. The main factor that influences it are the emissions produced by the transportation industry. Automobiles are one of the biggest source CO2 emissions. Because the engine efficiency is low, most of the energy produced is lost as heat. If the lost heat is recovered and transformed to electrical energy it could power some of the automobile systems, thus reducing the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Among the researched power generation technologies, one of the most advantageous in this situation is the thermoelectric generator (TEG). TEGs take advantage of Seebeck effect to convert low temperature heat into electricity using materials similar to thermocouples. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the TEG, including its operational principle, the experiments conducted to test it, the materials used in its construction, and the methods employed to improve its performance.