A Review on Energy Harvesting Techniques and Ways to Optimise the Energy Regeneration from Waste Heat

Ramli Yusof, Herman Wahid*, M. Hafis Izran Ishaka, Ida Laila Ahmad

Abstract

Due to energy crisis as well as environmental pollution issues, it is necessity for the establishment of alternatives energy harvester system in reducing the dependency of the primary resources such as oil and coal. This paper will firstly review the basic concept of the thermoelectric (TE) which able to harvest waste heat energy and convert it to electrical energy and vice versa. The recent applications of the thermoelectric generator (TEG) at various areas in term of its design structure and performance will also be reviewed. To optimise the TEG performance, some important parameters to be considered are the temperature difference between hot and cold side, the figure of merit (ZT) of the TEG and the power management in which these factors are significantly affecting the output power and the conversion efficiency of the TEG system. From this review, it is concluded that proper design of the TEG system is required to improve the energy conversion efficiency. Thus, for future improvements, an optimal energy harvester system has been proposed at the last section of this paper.