Characterization of thermoelectric cell for electric power generation

The thermoelectric effect has been studied in the world as an alternative source for electric power generation ranging from low to high levels of potencies. In particular, it has been studied the possibility of recovering thermal energy dissipated in the environment to generate levels of low potencies, but they are able to feed low-power electronic circuits with small thermoelectric generators. In this context, this paper presents a study of the behavior of the Seebeck effect in a Peltier cell for the purpose of electric power harvesting. For this study the Peltier cell was heated and cooled cyclically with a controlled thermal system and the response of electric power generation was registered. The heating and cooling were produced respectively by an electrical resistance and for a Peltier cell and were controlled by a Proportional-Integral controller (PI). With the obtained results it was possible to note the linearity of the thermoelectric effect relating the responses of electrical voltage produced by the cell with the temperatures applied to their faces. In this case, the voltage response performed proportional to the applied heat flux as expected.