Research and development on a thermoelectric power generating system using low-calorie exhaust gas

Most low-temperature exhaust gas under 200/spl deg/C is discarded as unused energy because of the difficulties in recovering and recycling the gas. This is especially true in painting and other plants that discharge gases containing low-calorie flammable components with or without incineration and adsorption that cause problems like air pollution and global warming. In the current project, we developed a thermoelectric power generating system to recover power from exhaust gas due to a temperature differential with the steep temperature gradient by spontaneous combustion of low concentrated exhaust gas in the thermoelectric generating element with porous structure. The system not only eliminates the smell and polluting components of exhaust gas, but it can be used to recover unused energy that is usually discarded.