• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.26 no.6_1
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• pp.1001-1010
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• 2023

To solve the problem that photovoltaic panels can not harvest electrical energy at a cloudy day and night, a floating solar thermoelectric generator (FSTEG, hereafter) is studied. The FSTEG is consisted of a dome shaped Fresnel lens to condense solar energy, a thermoelectric module connected with a heat sink to keep temperature difference, a floating system simulating a wavy ocean and an electrical circuit for energy storage. The dome shaped Fresnel lens was designed to have 29 prisms and its optical performance was evaluated outdoors under natural sunlight. Four thermoelectric modules were electrically connected and its performance was evaluated. The generated energy w as stored in a Li-ion battery by using a DC-DC step-up converter. For the application of ocean environment, the FSTEG was covered by the dome shaped Fresnel lens and sealed to float in a water-filled reservoir. The harvested energy shows a potential and a method that the FSTEG is suitable for the energy generation in the ocean environment.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.549-553
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• 2014

$CoSb_3$-based skutterudite compounds are candidate materials for thermoelectric power generation in the mid-temperature range (600 - 900 K) because their thermoelectric properties can be enhanced by doping and filling. The joining property of thermoelectric module electrodes containing thermoelectric materials is of great importance because it can dominate the efficiency of the thermoelectric module. This study examined the properties of $CoSb_3$/Al/Ti/CuMo joined by the spark plasma sintering technique. Titanium thin foil was used to prevent the diffusion of copper into $CoSb_3$ and Aluminum thin foil was used to improve the adhesion between $CoSb_3$ and Ti. The insertion of an Aluminum interlayer between the Ti and $CoSb_3$ was effective for joining $CoSb_3$ to Ti by forming an intermediate layer at the Al-$CoSb_3$ boundary without any micro cracks. Specifically, the adhesion strength of the Ti/Al/$CoSb_3$ joining interface showed a remarkable improvement compared with our previous results, without deterioration of electrical property in the interface.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.255-262
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• 2016

There has been intense research on self-diagnosis systems in railway applications, since stability and reliability have become more and more significant issues. Wired sensors have been widely used in the railway vehicles, but because of the difficulty in their maintenance and accessibility, they ar not considered for self-diagnosis systems. To have a self-monitoring system, wireless data transmission and self-powered sensors are required. For this purpose, a thermoelectric energy harvesting module that can generate electricity from temperature gradient between the bogie axle box and ambient environment was introduced in this work. The temperature gradient was measured under actual operation conditions, and the behavior of the thermoelectric module with an external load resistance and booster circuits was studied. The proposed energy harvesting system can be applied for wireless sensor nodes in railroad vehicles with optimization of thermal management.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 1993.02a
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• pp.70-71
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• 1993

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.187-193
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• 2010

This paper proposes a cooling system using thermoelectric elements for improving the output of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) modules. The temperature characteristics that improve the output of a BIPV system have rarely been studied up to now but some researchers have proposed a method using a ventilator. The efficiency of a ventilator depends mainly on the weather such as wind, irradiation etc. Because this cooling system is so sensitive to the velocity of the wind, it is unable to operate in the nominal operating cell temperature (NOCT) or the standard test condition (STC) which allow it to generate the maximum output. This paper proposes a cooling system using thermoelectric elements to solve such problems. The temperature control of thermoelectric elements can be controlled independently in an outdoor environment because it is performed by a micro-controller. In addition, it can be operated around the NOCT or the STC through an algorithm for temperature control. Therefore, the output of the system is increased and the efficiency is raised. This paper proves the validity of the proposed method by comparing the data obtained through experiments on the cooling systems of BIPV modules using a ventilator and thermoelectric elements.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.55-59
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• 2021

A thermoelectric cooler (TEC) is promising as an alternative refrigeration technology for the sake of its inherent advantages; no-moving parts and refrigerant-free in its operation. Due to the compactness, reliability and excellence in temperature stability, TECs have been widely used for small cooling devices. In recent years, thermoelectric devices have been attractive technologies that not only serve the needs of cooling and heating applications but also meet the demand for energy by recycling waste heat. In this research paper, multistage TEC is proposed as a concept of demonstrating the idea of transient cooling technology. The key idea of transient cooling is to harnesses the thermal mass installed at the interfacial level of the stages. By storing heat temporally at the thermal mass, the multistage TEC can readily reach lower temperatures than that by a steady-state operation. The multistage TEC consists of four different sizes of thermoelectric modules and they are operated with an optimized current. Once the cold-part of the uppermost stage is reached at the no-load temperature, the current is successively supplied to the lower stages with a certain time interval; 25, 50 and 75 seconds. The results show the temperatures that can be ultimately reached at the cold-side of the lowermost stage are 197, 182 and 237 K, respectively. It can be concluded that the timing or total amount of the current fed to each thermoelectric module is the key parameter to determine the no-load temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.219-226
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• 2019

This paper describes the development of a 500W DC/DC converter for use with a thermoelectric module(TEM). A thermoelectric device is a structure in which a P-type semiconductor and an N-type semiconductor are electrically connected in series and thermally connected in parallel. There is a feature that an electromotive force is generated by making a temperature difference between both surfaces of a thermoelectric element. This feature can be used as a renewable power source without the need for fossil energy. The proposed converter boosts the low generation voltage of the thermoelectric element to secure the voltage for the grid connection. This converter is a combination of a resonant converter for boosting and a boost-converter for output voltage control. This structure has an advantage that a voltage can be stepped up at a high efficiency and precise output voltage control is possible. We carry out simulations and experiments to verify the validity.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.519-524
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to develop a low temperature waterless container for live fish transportation which is economical and efficient The principle of the waterless transportation is that a live fish becomes asphyxial at about $5^{\circ}C$can survive without water for a long time. A low temperature waterless container is developed for this purpose, which utilizes thermoelectric modules for rather smaller and lighter cooling system with precise temperature control devise compared to the existing mechanical system. At first, we succeeded in making flounders alive in the waterless container for 24 hours. Also when flounders were transported in a round trip from Inchon to Pusan in the waterless container, carried in a car, they survived in the waterless container for over 21 hours.

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.38-38
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• 2004

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.777-784
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• 2017

Energy harvesting through a thermoelectric module normally makes use of the temperature gradient in the system's operational environment. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain the desired output power when the system is subjected to an environment in which a low temperature gradient is generated across the module, because the power generation efficiency of the thermoelectric device is not optimized. The utilization of solar energy, which is a form of renewable energy abundant in nature, has mostly been limited to photovoltaic solar cells and solar thermal energy generation. However, photovoltaic power generation is capable of utilizing only a narrow wavelength band from the sunlight and, thus, the power generation efficiency might be lowered by light scattering. In the case of solar thermal energy generation, the system usually requires large-scale facilities. In this study, a simple and small size thermoelectric power generation system with a solar concentrator was designed to create a large temperature gradient for enhanced performance. A solar tracking system was used to concentrate the solar thermal energy during the experiments and a liquid circulating chiller was installed to maintain a large temperature gradient in order to avoid heat transfer to the bottom of the thermoelectric module. Then, the setup was tested through a series of experiments and the performance of the system was analyzed for the purpose of evaluating its feasibility and validity.