Differential Power Processing for Mismatched Thermoelectric Generators in Parallel

Abstract

This paper presents a differential power processing architecture to increase the energy capture of parallel-connected thermoelectric generators (TEGs) which have mismatched I-V characteristics. The design employs Cuk converters regulating individual branch current to achieve maximum power output at each TEG. Each converter handles only the differential power between neighboring branches, targeting minimum power loss. In this research, a test-bed is designed to evaluate the I-V characteristics of TEG modules under non-uniform temperature gradients. The power outputs are compared between the proposed system and a directly-parallel-connected TEG system. A hardware prototype was built to validate the performance of the system.