A case study of thermoelectric generator application on rotary cement furnace

In this research, a thermoelectric generator unit was designed which composed of a heat collection plate, thermoelectric generator (TEG) modules in series-connected electrically and a water-cooled cold plate. There were 16 thermoelectric generator units installed within a 2×1 m² steel frame, each unit including 8 TEG modules to harvest the waste heat. The long-term experimental results showed that this generation system could generate an overall electric power of 214 W with matched load when the installed frame was 10 cm away from the rotary furnace. The generated electrical power was directly used to light up the indoor LED lamps and made a great contribution to energy saving. This generation system has demonstrated a potential application opportunity on thermoelectric waste heat recovery of rotary cement furnace and has been continuously and stably run for one and half years.