Recent Trends in Energy Conversion Using Thermoelectric Generators: Techniques and Methods

The world is facing serious energy crises due to the proliferation of human population and their craze towards automobiles. People cull their owned vehicles rather than the public transport system. Because of this the need for fossil fuels are drastically increasing and the emissions too. Due to this shoddier situation, many countries are following rigorous emission norms. Numerous researchers focus on the alternative method to generate energy, particularly heat and electrical energy. Electricity is predominant starting from domestic lighting to satellite technologies. Since the electricity plays a very major role in the human’s routine life, which affects in turn of the country’s economy. In any energy conversion process, a significant amount of heat is irreversible, by considering the same, thermoelectric generators are developed to recover the available heat energy into useful electrical energy. This research paper details the energy conversion trends by implying the thermoelectric generators with various thermoelectric elements and different heat sources. The construction of TEG was discussed with several thermoelectric materials in many applications. The output voltage generated in each thermoelectric material was discussed. A metal-insulator phase transition material, Vanadium dioxide was predominantly superior.