A thermoelectric generator using loop heat pipe and design match for maximum-power generation

Abstract The present study focuses on the thermoelectric generator (TEG) using loop heat pipe (LHP) and design match for maximum-power generation. The TEG uses loop heat pipe, a passive cooling device, to dissipate heat without consuming power and free of noise. The experiments for a TEG with 4 W rated power show that the LHP performs very well with overall thermal resistance 0.35 K W −1 , from the cold side of TEG module to the ambient. The LHP is able to dissipate heat up to 110 W and is maintenance free. The TEG design match for maximum-power generation, called “near maximum-power point operation (nMPPO)”, is studied to eliminate the MPPT (maximum-power point tracking controller). nMPPO is simply a system design which properly matches the output voltage of TEG with the battery. It is experimentally shown that TEG using design match for maximum-power generation (nMPPO) performs better than TEG with MPPT.