AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition
    Energy Frontiers Focus Topic Tuesday Sessions
       Session EN-TuM

Invited Paper EN-TuM5
Advanced Thermoelectric Technology for Waste Heat Recovery

Tuesday, November 1, 2011, 9:20 am, Room 108

Session: Industrial Physics Forum on Energy III
Presenter: Gregory Meisner, General Motors Research & Development
Correspondent: Click to Email
In today’s internal combustion engine based vehicles, more than two-thirds of the fuel energy is lost as waste heat. At General Motors Global Research & Development, we aim to demonstrate a viable thermoelectric (TE) generator system to recover that waste heat by converting it into useful electricity using advanced TE technology and thereby reduce vehicular fuel consumption. Essential to the long term success of TE technology in the automobile industry, and for waste heat recovery applications in general, is new materials research, specifically fundamental physics and materials research aimed at discovering and understanding new high performance TE materials, and the development of those materials into robust and high performance TE devices. Our work, which is generously supported by the U. S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Program, focuses on (1) bulk TE materials (e.g., filled skutterudites) and their temperature dependent physical, mechanical, and TE properties, and (2) TE device and module development, TE generator design, and prototype TE generator fabrication, assessment, and validation. We have made significant progress on constructing working prototype automotive TE generator and testing it on a GM production vehicle.