Development of improved modules for the economic recovery of low temperature waste heat

Waste heat recovery is an application of thermoelectrics where a high conversion efficiency is not of major importance. The economic competitiveness of this technology is determined by the capital investment (cost per watt) and reliability (module mean-time-between failures). This paper reports progress made in developing an improved module for use in the economic thermoelectric recovery of low temperature waste heat. It is predicted that these improved modules will generate at least three times the electrical power per unit area compared with Peltier modules currently available and reduce the break-even time (operating period required to produce electricity at a cost which matches that of the major electrical power generating utilities) from the present seven years to less than three years