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B6: DC/DC inverters

Development of MPPT Power Converter Scheme for Thermoelectric Generation System

Hung-Bin Zhang1, Jia-You Lee1, Hung-Yu Shen1, Tiao-Yuan Wu2, Chan-Wei Wu2, and Chun-Da Chen2
1Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, ROC; 2New Materials Research and Development Department, China Steel Corporation, Taiwan, ROC

  Thermoelectric generation (TEG) module generates power depending on the temperature difference across two sides of the module with a linear relation between output voltage and current. The output power varies with different loading impedance, and the maximum output power can be generated by impedance matching. However, the loading impedance is unpredictable and uncontrollable. Therefore, a high-efficiency maximum power point tracking (MPPT) device is required for TEG system to reach maximum output power under various loading impedance. In this research, a TEG-MPPT scheme is developed according to TEG power generation characteristics. The MPPT circuit composes a boost DC-DC converter and a feedback circuit. To validate the performances, 3 series of TEG modules with different maximum output power (32.21W, 11.61W, and 6.28W; 50.1W totally) are connected to 3 MPPT devices respectively and then connected in parallel; the measured output power and efficiency are 48.39W and 96% respectively. To apply a MPPT device to a series of TEG modules under different loading impedances (from 5 to 200 ohm), the output efficiency is also larger than 95%.