THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

Dilek Özlem Esen

,

Mesut Kaya

,

Yacoub A Addeen

EXPLORING THERMOELECTRIC GENERATION OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY FROM EXHAUST GAS HEAT: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

ABSTRACT
The global increase in energy demand has driven the automotive sector to rely heavily on fossil fuels, contributing to harmful GHG emissions. Recent advancements in exhaust gas recovery aim to enhance the efficiency of internal combustion engines, thereby reducing fossil fuel consumption and mitigating global warming. This study explores the potential of thermoelectric heat recovery systems in automotive applications, focusing on recovering heat from exhaust gases to generate electrical energy. A prototype exhaust system using 27 thermoelectric generators was developed, demonstrating its potential to improve fuel economy by converting waste heat into usable electricity. The study achieved a maximum current of 0.47 A, a voltage of 13.05 V, and 6 W of electrical power over a five-hour operation period. However, the system required a cooling load of 1.792 kW to maintain functionality, highlighting challenges in efficiency and integration.
KEYWORDS
thermoelectric generator, peltier, exhaust, cogeneration
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2024-10-28
PAPER REVISED: 2024-12-03
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2025-02-11
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2025-04-05
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI241028064E
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2025, VOLUME 29, ISSUE No. 5, PAGES [3875 - 3885]
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Exploring thermoelectric generation of electrical energy from exhaust gas heat: An experimental study

© 2026 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence