Waste Heat Power Generation of Gasifier Stove using TEG with Water Cooling Unit

Waste heat is inexpensive and abundant in nature, contributing significantly to global warming. It benefits nature if we can use waste heat that escapes into the atmosphere after it has served its original purpose. To recover waste heat energy, thermoelectric materials are essential. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, it is estimated that nearly 40% or around 9 million households still use an open-air wood-fueled stove, making it the most used cooking method. A household using open-air cooking stoves releases a high level of particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and other health-damaging pollutants into the environment. The Top-lit Updraft (TLUD) Gasifier is the advanced development of cookstoves that uses biomass to create a sustainable and environmentally friendly stove that can fully utilize the fire-producing capacity of the fuel. In this study, we introduced a waste heat recovery power generation system of a gasifier stove. The idea is to attach multiple TEGs in the outer frame of the gasifier stove to recover the heat. Water cooling units were added to maximize the power generated by the TEGs. Design, proof of concept, and actual experiments were presented in this paper. The result shows that the TEG with water cooling units in a gasifier stove produced more power than no water cooling and stagnant water.