A review on thermoelectric-hydraulic performance and heat transfer enhancement technologies of thermoelectric power generator system

The thermoelectric material is considered to a good choice to recycle the waste heat in the power and energy systems because the thermoelectric material is a solid-state energy converter which can directly convert thermal energy into elec-trical energy, especially suitable for high temperature power and energy systems due to the large temperature difference. However, the figure of merit of thermoe-lectric material is very low, and the thermoelectric power of generator system is even lower. This work reviews the recent progress on the thermoelectric power generator system from the view of heat transfer, including the theoretical analy-sis and numerical simulation on thermoelectric-hydraulic performance, conven-tional heat transfer enhancement technologies, radial and flow-directional seg-mented enhancement technologies for the thermoelectric power generator system. Review ends with the discussion of the future research directions of numerical simulation methods and heat transfer enhancement technologies used for the thermoelectric power generator in high temperature power and energy systems.