Marina Giannakopoulou, Student, Athens College
Victoria Giakoumopoulou, PhD Physicist, Athens College
email: vgiakoumopoulou@athenscollege.edu.gr
Summary
Most energy in gasoline cars is lost as heat. Heat loss, however, can be recovered via the Seebeck effect, which allows temperature difference to create electric potential difference and transform a thermocouple (tc) into an electric generator able to power small-scale car electronics. Using Peltier modules and regression analysis, it was confirmed that (i), in an open circuit, , and (ii), in a closed circuit with , maximum power occurs when . Overall, although their efficiency is low, thermocouples can only reduce energy waste and improve fuel efficiency, for their operation relies solely on heat loss.
Keywords: Gasoline cars, energy waste, Seebeck effect, 12th Sustainable Development Goal
