Study of the performances of a thermoelectric generator based on a catalytic meso-scale H2/C3H8 fueled combustor

In this work the thermoelectric generator (TEG) based on catalytic combustion already developed in our lab has been further investigated and improved. The system made of two thermoelectric (TE) modules coupled with a catalytic combustor has been used in this work to obtain higher overall efficiency by adding hydrogen to the fuelmixture. Since implementation of hydrogen as a fuel has shown low and stable combustion temperature in literature, it is expected to achieve good overall efficiency of TEG. Moreover, hydrogen can be used to improve the system inducing self-ignition. Focus of the present work is the implementation of different mixture proportions, varying the amount of hydrogen, and the investigation of their effects on the overall efficiency. The overall TEG efficiency, has been evaluated by parallel characterization of thermoelectric modules and exhaust gases composition. The system performances have been characterized using different mixtures: the results indicate that addition of H2 to the fuel contribute to increase the chemical and overall TEG efficiency respect to previous work, producing up to 5.92W of electrical power. Finally, the effects of H2 for on self-ignition conditions have been investigated finding the minimum H2 amount for different gas flow rates.