Analysis of Thermoelectric materials for heating applications in Automobiles

Abstract

Abstract In today’s world with the technological advancements, all that has been considered as slags and waste can be utilized to its maximum therefore attaining sustainability. Thermoelectric devices are now being used in various applications including cooling and heating processes in electronics and automobiles. The choice of materials for these thermoelectric devices are essential in order to determine the parameters such as temperature gradient, thermo emf and total heat dissipated with the help of Seebeck, Peltier and Thomson co-efficients. The elements for the thermoelectric device are arranged by their thermo emf produced in the thermoelectric series. This has been taken into account for the selection of materials for the heating device, analyzed in this article. In certain cold countries, temperature can drop below 10°C, which is very much near its cloud point and pour point of petroleum fuels. Thermoelectric devices will thereby come to use in these places to maintain the temperature above the cloud point of the fuel. This study also focuses on another application of waste heat recovery in automobile engines to produce thermo emf, which can be utilized for small scale electronics in automobiles. In this study, materials are analyzed for the previously mentioned applications.