Genel

Presentation Title

Advances in Thermoelectric Generation for Carbon Zero: From Waste Heat to Green Power

Abstract

Fossil fuels, which emerged as crucial energy sources during the Industrial Revolution, still play a significant role in heat and power generation today. On account of the high reliance of energy consumption on fossil fuels through combustion, a considerable amount of waste heat is liberated into the atmosphere. Most of the high-temperature waste heat has been recovered in the industry for preheating. In contrast, the recovery and utilization of low- and medium-temperature (< 300 °C) waste heat, accounting for around 90% of waste heat, are deficient. The thermoelectric generator (TEG) is a promising device that can directly convert waste heat into electricity, thereby generating green power. Though TEG has the pros of no moving parts, noiseless, compact, safe, reliable, flexible installation, and without emitting pollutants, it has the cons of low conversion efficiency and high cost. TEG’s efficiency can be improved through material development, geometry design, and better operation. This presentation will introduce the three approaches, illustrating their influences on TEG’s power output and efficiency and how to enhance TEG’s performance. Moreover, several advanced optimization technologies for TEG’s performance will be addressed, including the statistical design of experiment (DoE) and artificial intelligence. DoE will cover the Taguchi method, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and response surface methodology (RSM), while artificial intelligence comprises evolutionary computation (multi-objective genetic algorithm, Nelder-Mead algorithm, etc.) and machine learning (artificial neural network, multivariate adaptive regression splines, etc.).

Affiliation

National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

Biography

Professor Wei-Hsin Chen is a Distinguished Professor at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. He is also the Honorary Chair Professor at Tunghai University, Chair Professor at the National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Research Fellow of the National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan, and Vice President of the Institute for Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems-Asia (ILASS-Asia). He received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University in 1993. He was a visiting professor at Princeton University, USA; the University of New South Wales, Australia; the University of Edinburg, UK; the University of British Columbia, Canada; the University of Lorraine, France; and RWTH Aachen University, Germany. He was also an invited lecturer at the University of Lorraine. His research interests include hydrogen energy, bioenergy, clean energy, carbon capture and utilization, and atmospheric science. He has published over 600 peer-reviewed journal papers with a h-index of 84. He is the Editor-in-Chief, Section Editor-in-Chief, associate editor, and editorial board member of several prestigious journals. He also serves as a Guest Editor of around 20 SCI-indexed journals. In recent years, his important awards include Outstanding Research Award (National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan), Highly Cited Research and Review Paper Awards (Applied Energy, Elsevier), Outstanding Engineering Professor Award (Chinese Institute of Engineers), Highly Cited Review Article Award (Bioresource Technology, Elsevier), TECO Award, and seven consecutive years (2016-2022) Clarivate Analytics (Web of Science) Highly Cited Researcher Award.