Assessment of Thermoelectric Cooling Application to Improve Power Gas Turbine Performance

Much has been written about thermoelectric devices that are gaining widespread application at home and in industries. They have the advantage of no moving parts and are readily coupled to other devices that either require electricity (direct current), or some measure of cooling. The idea of combining a thermoelectric generator that generates a DC voltage and a thermoelectric cooler as the load has been around for some time. In this paper, the possibility of employing the concept in a gas turbine generator setting wherein the waste heat found on the exhaust frame of the gas turbine is an attractive source of heat for the thermoelectric generator (TEG), which can potentially power thermoelectric coolers (TEC) to cool the inlet air to the compressor to maintain peak efficiency during summer when the ambient temperature rises to 30°C or more in some places, reducing the efficiency and power output of the turbine. In this study, it is found that it is feasible to utilize TECs in a reconfigured multi-branch inlet duct. However, due to space limitations on the turbine exhaust frame, there is currently no available surface area to install the large number of thermoelectric generators (TEG) required to power the TECs.