Thermoelectric Generators research and technology for project collaboration

Background：(i) It is found that the most energy-intensive industries are cement, ceramic, iron and steel, refineries, glassmaking, chemicals, paper and pulp and food and drink. Heat recovery and utilisation technology is crucial to decarbonise the industries and recover the energy from the wastewater treatment process. In conventional cooling systems of foundation industry manufacturing - including direct-flow cooling systems, closed recirculation systems and open recirculation systems - the wastewater is directly discharged or discharged after heat exchangers, which causes massive heat loss, particularly low-grade heat loss, resulting in increasing carbon emission. (ii) Exhaust Hot Gases There are huge energy is wasted via chimney. All sorts of industrial waste heat like exhaust hot gases from furnaces, boilers, and so on, can be considered a heat source. For example, pulp and paper mills usually feature two types of unused thermal energy: low to medium grade heat in the form of flue gas or waste liquid streams and high-grade heat in the form of steam. Unused stem is sometimes available as they may tend to vent off excess steam to help balance the steam header against process upsets or because a non-condensing turbine is running below its rated capacity. The thermal energy can be recovered using a waste heat recovery system in the paper drying process at the paper mill (A. C. Francis, et al., "Waste heat recovery for power generation using organic rankine cycle in a pulp and paper mill). A huge potential for energy recovery was discovered in the hot exhaust air. The hot exhaust air was previously emitted to the surroundings. However, by extracting heat from the energy intensive air, a vast potential of excess heat is enabled. According to a survey by Celsiuscity, the district heating water of a paper mill in Skjern, Denmark is heated from 37 to 70 degrees Celsius with exhaust air temperatures between 50 and 58 degrees Celsius. If the exhaust energy can be reused, the demand on purchased energy can be reduced.

Our Solution: (i) The proposed Sandwich Pipe will be mainly used in energy recycling systems of foundation industry and adjacent industries to recover low-grade heat (less than 100oC) from wastewater. The low temperature energy can be harvested from wastewater in the format of thermal energy and electrical energy at the same time. The electricity harvested from thermal energy can charge the battery or energy storage module. It can also directly power local electrical loads, e.g., pumps, through electricity regulation device. (ii) Our Sandwich Pipe can also be deployed to integrated into part of a chimney to generate electricity. Specifically, the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the steam chimney will be used for electrical power generation. Because the temperature at high altitude is lower than at ground level, the proposed Sandwich Pipe can generate more power with a larger temperature difference in the high altitude area.

Innovation: The device is a multi-functional pipe that (i) Curved TEG (i) works like a traditional water pipe for heat transfer, (ii) can generate electricity without disruption in conventional wastewater treatment, (iii) is self-power generation electric circuit design, (iv) maximum heat recovery and energy harvesting.