Thermal, environmental and economic analysis of a thermoelectric power generation system utilizing waste heat for a ferry

Abstract

Waste heat recovery from marine engines plays an important role in reducing harmful emissions into the atmosphere. This study presents the thermal, economic and environmental analyses of a thermoelectric power generation system for a ferry. In this study, the temperature and voltage distributions on the thermoelectric module are obtained by the COMSOL Multiphysics software for thermoelectric modules of TGMT-19W-4V and TE-MOD-22W-7V-56 at different exhaust gas temperatures for various engine loads and the sea water temperature of 20°C. The results indicate that the maximum electrical power of 3 kW is produced for the TE-MOD-22W-7V-56 at the engine load of 100%, while the minimum electrical power of 0.44 kW is produced for the TGMT-19W-4V at 25% engine load. The amortization periods of the thermoelectric power generation system are 16.5 and 9.4 years for TGMT-19W-4V and TE-MOD-22W-7V-56, respectively. The maximum and minimum annual reduction of emissions are obtained for CO 2 and CO, respectively, for both thermoelectric modules. These are 4084 kg of CO 2 for TGMT-19W-4V and 9085 kg of CO 2 for TE-MOD-22W-7V-56 and 0.7 kg of CO for TGMT-19W-4V and 1.5 kg of CO for TE-MOD-22W-7V-56.