High-capacity thermoelectric heat exchanger

This study investigates the feasibility of integrating thermoelectric devices into a large-capacity heat exchanger (up to 100 kW). Typically, thermal-electrical conversion is inefficient and thermoelectrics are only used in low-power applications (<;1 kW). The incentive for using thermoelectrics, however, lies in their compact size, light-weight, high reliability, and sub-ambient cooling. In this study, a prototype thermoelectric heat exchanger is designed, fabricated and optimized for performance through testing and simulation. Specifically, direct fluid contact and jet-impingement were used to improve heat transfer at every thermoelectric hot/cold junction. This resulted in a five-fold increase in cooling capacity to pumping power. Experimentally validated predictions also demonstrated that the full-scale heat exchanger is lighter per unit-power than comparable vapor-compression systems. This feasibility study raises the outlook of reducing thermoelectric technology to practice in large heat load applications.