An automotive thermoelectric generator (ATEG) is a device that converts some of the waste heat of an internal combustion engine (IC) into electricity using the Seebeck Effect.
The thermoelectric materials are made up of p-type and n-type semiconductors, while the heat exchangers are metal plates with high thermal conductivity.
[4] The compression assembly system aims to decrease the thermal contact resistance between the thermoelectric module and the heat exchanger surfaces.
[1] In addition, it has been stated that for low power engine conditions, ATEGs may be able to harvest more net energy than electric turbogenerators.
For instance, since exhaust has to flow through the ATEG's heat exchanger, kinetic energy from the gas is lost, causing increased pumping losses.
[7] This can be accounted for by downsizing the muffler, resulting in zero net or even negative total back-pressure on the engine, as Faurecia and other companies have shown.
[21] To make the ATEG's efficiency more consistent, coolant is usually used on the cold-side heat exchanger rather than ambient air so that the temperature difference will be the same on both hot and cold days.
[22] Although the Seebeck effect was discovered in 1821, the use of thermoelectric power generators was restricted mainly to military and space applications until the second half of the twentieth century.
The company in the following years introduced other designs for diesel trucks as well as military vehicles In the late 1990s, Nissan Motors published the results of testing its ATEG which utilized SiGe thermoelectric materials.
Since the early-2000s, nearly every major automaker and exhaust supplier has experimented or studied thermoelectric generators, and companies including General Motors, BMW, Daimler, Ford, Renault, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Valeo, Boysen, Faurecia, Tenneco, Denso, Gentherm Inc., Alphabet Energy, and numerous others have built and tested prototypes.
[25][26][27] In January 2012, Car and Driver named an ATEG created by a team led by Amerigon (now Gentherm Incorporated) one of the 10 "most promising" technologies.