ICT2014 Abstracts

The ongoing effort led by General Motors to develop a practical thermoelectric (TE) generator is currently engaged in designing, building, and testing a cost-effective automotive waste heat recovery device that will significantly improve vehicular fuel economy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. To accomplish this task, a large team of commercial partners and research collaborators was formed to incorporate the latest advances in high temperature TE material properties, TE module manufacturing processes, heat exchanger concepts, high temperature thermal interfaces, electrical power conditioning schemes, and vehicle integration and electrification strategies. The ultimate commercialization potential of a TE-based waste heat recovery device relies on the coordinated effort of our various team members, which amounts to creating the potential supply chain for an automotive TE generator (TEG). It also relies on the enabling support of the US Department of Energy through its Vehicle Technology Program. The successful use of advanced TEs at high temperature for automotive waste heat recovery will (1) be the first application of high-temperature TE materials for high-volume use, (2) establish new industrial sectors with scaled up production capability on all needed TEG materials and components, and (3) be a new area of commercial technology that will be implemented without the added burden of displacing any existing technology. Our recent results and progress on automotive TEG development will be presented.