Energy 134 (2017) 1001e1012

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

A hybrid concentrated solar thermal collector/thermo-electric

generation system
Mohd A. Al-Nimr, Bourhan M. Tashtoush*, Mohammad A. Khasawneh,
Ibrahim Al-Keyyam
Mechanical Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A bi-generation system combining direct absorption at plate solar collector for medium temperatures
Received 23 February 2017 air-heating applications integrated with a thermoelectric generator was modeled under optically
Received in revised form concentrated solar radiation conditions. In order to improve the performance of the bi-generation sys-
14 June 2017
tem, the proposed system was simulated under the effect of evaporative cooling at the cold side of the
Accepted 16 June 2017
Available online 17 June 2017
thermoelectric modules in order to create a cooling effect that decreases the temperature of the cold
junction, thus enhancing the electrical conversion efciency of the thermoelectric modules. Rung-Kutta
4th order method is used to solve the ordinary differential, equation, while Newton-Raphson iterative
Keywords:
TEG
technique is used to solve the nonlinear algebraic system of the model governing equations. The results
Hybrid system have reected a signicant effect for the evaporative cooling on the system performance particularly at
Solar collector high values of optical concentration ratio. Furthermore, an augmentation of 19.13% in the total electrical
Evaporative cooling power output was predicted at a concentration ratio of 20 suns. Simulation results had also shown that
Efciency more stable electrical performance of the system when adopting evaporative cooling method compared
Renewable energy to forced convection. It was found that there was an optimum value of water mass ow rate, at which the
Solar energy maximum power output was generated. Finally, relative humidity was shown to have a less signicant
Concentrated solar power
impact on the performance at high temperature operation, since the effect of high water vapor partial
pressure at the heat sink (cold junction), when the system is operating at elevated temperature,
dominated over the effect of ambient relative humidity according to the evaporation rate governing
model.
2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction improves energy efciency by converting waste heat into electrical

The most signicant challenge of our era is undoubtedly the
energy and environment issues. Global Warming (GW), speculated
to have been brought about by the usage of fossil fuels, already has
an adverse effect on our health, community and climate. Unless we
take immediate action, we risk the possibility for these effects to
intensify, and grow costlier and increasingly damaging to current
and future generations. It is common knowledge that fossil fuel is a
depleting source of energy that will eventually vanish all together.
Therefore, a replacement must be developed that is both efcient
and environmentally friendly. A suggested solution to counteract
this issue is waste heat recovery. As the name suggests, this method
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: bourhan@just.edu.jo (B.M. Tashtoush).
power. Furthermore, it prevents the accumulated increase in at-
mospheric temperature due to waste heat rejection. By resorting to
this method, we rely less on fossil fuels, thereby reducing emissions
to the atmosphere. Waste heat produced by any industrial appli-
cation is rejected to the atmosphere and can instead be recovered.
One of the suggested ways to recover that waste heat is by intro-
ducing ThermoElectric Generators (TEGs) into solar collectors.
TEGs are energy conversion devices unlike conventional heat
engines. Its advantage is that it is considered as a stand-alone po-
wer system with no moving parts, noise or vibrations, and there-
fore, easier maintenance. Although the principle of
thermoelectricity was discovered early in 1834, there were not very
many practical applications until the 1950s [1]. Since TEGs have a
relatively low conversion efciency, the applications for which
TEGs are used, are still limited but the fact that waste heat is going
to be rejected to the atmosphere anyway makes the low conversion

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.06.093
0360-5442/ 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1002 M.A. Al-Nimr et al. / Energy 134 (2017) 1001e1012

Nomenclature Ul Overall heat loss coefcient (W m2 K1)

V Wind speed (m s1)
a Thickness of uid layer (m) w Collector width (m)
Ac Area of the collector (m2)
Copt. Optical concentration ratio, (sun) Greek symbols
Cp Specic heat of the uid at a constant pressure a Thermal diffusivity (m2 s1)
(kJ kg1 C1) b Volumetric thermal expansion coefcient (K1)
dx Finite element length (m) Emissivity
Dh Hydraulic diameter, (m) h Efciency
Ein Power input (W) q Tilt angle (Radian)
Eout Power output (W) leff Effective thermal conductivity of the thermoelectric
G Solar radiation (W m2) module (W m K1)
g Gravitational Acceleration n kinematic viscosity (m2 s1)
h Convective heat transfer coefcient (W m2 K1) s StefaneBoltzmann constant (W m2 K4)
I Electrical current (A)
k Thermal conductivity (W m K1) Subscript
L Collector length (m) a Ambient
m_ Mass ow rate (kg s1) c Cold
Nu Nusselt number con Convection
P Electrical power (W) e Electrical
Pr Prandtl number eff Effective
Q Heat (W) eq Equivalent
R Thermal Resistance (K W1) f Fluid
Ra Rayleigh number g Glass
Re Reynolds number h Hot
Re,eff Thermoelectric module effective electrical resistance hyd Hydraulic
(U) i In
Rl Electrical load resistance (U) l-total Total electrical resistance
S Intensity of solar radiation (W m2) o Out
SPN,eff Effective Seebeck coefcient (V K1) p Plate
T Temperature (K) rad Radiation
TEG ThermoElectric Generator sky Sky

efciency of TEGs of less importance [2,3].
A number of practical applications of recovering waste heat
using thermoelectric devices can be found in literature. Hsiao et al.
[4] theoretically investigated the performance of a TEG module by
recovering waste heat from an automobile engine. Their results
showed that the performance of the TEG installed on the exhaust
pipe was better than that on the radiator. Martinez et al. [5] set
forth a self-cooling TEG without the need for additional electrical
power. Their results conveyed that a thermoelectric self-cooling
system could be put to function as a temperature controller. In
addition, Hsu et al. [6] constructed a thermoelectric system that
consisted of 24 TEG modules to recover waste heat from the
exhaust pipe of an automobile. They ended up with an accurate t
to the maximum power as a function of temperature difference
between the two junctions only. Moreover, Kinsella et al. [7]
explored techniques of delivering maximum power that is being
produced by TEGs to a battery for a range of temperature differ-
ences across the thermoelectric modules. A circuitous approach
was taken by Orr et al. [8] to improve the efciency of the engine by
using TEG and heat pipes as a waste heat recovery system rather
than attempting to improve the efciency of the engine itself
directly. The combination of these two promising technologies
allowed for more design exibility since TEG placement was not
limited to the exhaust pipe surface anymore. Alata et al. [9] studied
the dynamic thermal behavior of TEGs and refrigerators. The co-
efcient of performance was calculated as a function of time. Ac-
cording to the results, the time required to reach steady state
behavior was shown to be short. Jfri et al. [10] explored the
utilization of the waste heat harvested from motorcycles exhaust
using TEG. Their results yielded a maximum temperature differ-
ence of 10.8
C, which generated 0.92 V when the motor cycle was
running at 60 km h1.
In the industry eld, different attempts were done to recover
waste heat. Yazawa et al. [11] studied the potential of using TEGs to
recover thermal energy from the glass melt process, whereas the
melting furnace temperature exceeds 1500
C. Results had revealed
that from the production of 500 ton per day of scale glass, a total
electrical generation of 55.6 kW, with converting efciency of 15%
could be obtained. The authors also stated that 1.37 billion kWh
energy saving could be obtained annually using this technology. In
the same eld, Takla et al. [12] also investigated the performance of
recovering waste heat from the metal casting process. One hundred
and sixty W m2 was obtained due to a 100
C temperature dif-
ference across TEG. The authors also mentioned that the potential
to increase the total electrical output was strong if the modules
were moved closer to the heat source.
Solar energy was another eld for which TEGs have been widely
used either as an individual solar device or as hybrid systems.
Kraemer et al. [13] were able to attain a maximum converting ef-
ciency of 4.6% by developing at panel TEG that exploit thermal
concentration using large absorbers. Moreover, Chen et al. [14] had
numerically investigated the performance of thermal concentrated
solar TEGs and took into account the temperature dependent
properties of the commercial TEG material. Their results showed
that a maximum efciency of 4.15% was achieved by enforcing a
200
C temperature difference. Another investigation was
 M.A. Al-Nimr et al. / Energy 134 (2017) 1001e1012
performed by Al-Nimr et al. [15], where authors enquired into the
performance of thermoelectric modules that function primarily as a
heat pump and subsidiarity as an electricity generator. The energy
saving and economic feasibility of this device were investigated.
The proposed system was theoretically simulated for schools as a
study case under Mediterranean climate conditions. A maximum
energy saving of 19% was predicted with a payback period was
obtained to be 14 years for the system. Irshad et al. [16] studied the
thermoelectric air duct cooling system assisted by PV wall mounted
modules for tropical climate. For the considered case of study, the
proposed system was shown to provide an annual saving of
1806.75 kWh in electricity in compare to the traditional air con-
ditioning system. Authors also stated that the proposed system
comprised the environmentally harm and had high reliability and
less fuel appealing.
In addition, Baranowsk et al. [17] showed that a generator ef-
ciency of 15.9% could be attained from new material with an ideal
optical system that had an incident ux of 100 kWm2 and a hot
side temperature of 1000
C. However, if a non-ideal optical system
was adopted, the efciency of the generator was shown to be less
than that of the rst case, where 14.1% converting efciency was
attained. These results emphasized that TEGs were competitive
with a concentrated solar power plant. Singh et al. [18] experi-
mentally designed and analyzed the performance of a power gen-
eration system from a solar pond using thermosiphon and
thermoelectric modules. Their results revealed a maximum output
of 3.2 W, which coincided with a 27
C temperature difference
across the TEG. This system was able to supply serviceable power at
night and cloudy days due to the ability of solar ponds to store the
heat. Ozdemir et al. [19] proposed an experimental study of a solar
heating TEG with a wind chimney for cooling. Their ndings un-
veiled that the designed setup could produce a maximum output
power of up to 0.83 W.
Nowadays, hybrid systems are more compelling. Urbiola et al.
[20] investigated the possibility of using TEG in hybrid systems.
Their investigation consisted of a comparison of the cost and ef-
ciency between two systems, i.e. the sun-tracking concentrating
hybrid TEG system and the traditional PV/T system. Another study
was carried out by Kossyvakis et al. [21] where authors experi-
mentally examined the performance of a tandem hybrid PV-TEG
using both Poly-Si & dye-sensitized solar cells. The maximum cell
operating temperature tested was 85
C and the output augmen-
tation reached 22.5% for Poly-Si and 30.2% for dye-sensitized. Zhang
and Chau [22] designed and executed a hybrid PV-TEG system for
hybrid electric vehicles. TEG used the wasted heat from the car
internal combustion engine and the solar cells converted solar
energy into electricity. Their outcomes provided benecial infor-
mation for developing energy policies and approximating their
environmental impact. Furthermore, Zhang et al. [23] were able to
develop a thermal hybrid system with a TEG module was situated
on one end of an evacuated tube of solar water heater. This system
yielded a thermal efciency of approximately 47% and an electrical
efciency of about 1%.
Recently, varieties of hybrid systems incorporating TEGs were
proposed. Ciu et al. [24] experimentally studied the performance of
combined PV/TEG system under solar concentrated conditions.
Phase change materials (PCM) was also used in their proposed
system in order to assure that the system is working at optimum
conditions. The results showed that an enhanced performance for
the system relative to the case of standalone PV system could be
achieved. The authors stated that such systems could be a prom-
ising step towards full solar spectrum utilization. Another work was
performed by Zhu et al. [25]. The authors proposed a PV/TEG sys-
tem that operated under thermal concentration conditions where
the integrated system was placed within an enclosure in order to
1003
reduce thermal losses. The considered system was shown to pro-
vide a peak efciency of 23%, which was augmented by 25% relative
to 19% of a standalone PV system. Moreover, Da et al. [26] investi-
gated the performance of PV/TEG hybrid system under the effect of
moth/eye shaped nanostructured lens in order to enhance the
transmission of solar radiation. Results showed a signicant
decrease in reection optical loss. Conclusively, it was justiable to
say that hybrid solar systems were more effective than individual
solar devices.
In the current work, a numerical study on the incorporation of
TEG with at plate solar collector under solar concentration con-
ditions is performed. The evaporative cooling effect at the TEG cold
side is presented. Water evaporation is assumed to occur at a
wetted porous media at the cold junction to reduce its temperature
by means of evaporative cooling, thereby increasing the power
output. A steady-state mathematical model of the system is pre-
sented in details to describe the system behavior and a 1-D
mathematical model is developed to evaluate the system perfor-
mance. The ordinary differential equation of the working uid
temperature was solved numerically and simultaneously with two
algebraic equations that govern the energy balance at the cold and
hot sides of the thermoelectric module. The ODE model is solved
using Rung-Kutta 4th order method, while Newton-Raphson iter-
ative technique is used to solve the algebraic system of equations. In
addition, the solution domain is discretized into small segments
and the governing equations are solved at each segment.
2. Theoretical analysis
2.1. Model description
The energy conservation principle is applied to the model under
consideration shown in Fig. 1. The thermal resistance layout is
presented in Fig. 2. Equation (1) represents the energy balance for
the system. In addition, the energy equation is applied to the nite
element dx and the result is an ODE shown in Equation (2). In this
equation Ul is the overall heat transfer coefcient that accounts for
heat loss through the collector upper surface and Rh represents the
convective thermal resistance between the working uid and the
hot side of the thermoelectric module. S represents the solar inci-
dent radiation as shown in Equation (3) and Copt. is the optical
concentration ratio. The optical concentration factor, which is also
known as the number of suns, is dened as the ratio of the mean
radiant ux density on a receiver area compared to the average
normal global irradiance and can be directly applied to thermal
calculations [27]. The theoretical limit to solar concentration is
45000 for circular concentrators and 212 for linear concentrators.
For low concentration range Copt is <10 and for medium range
10 < Copt <100 and for high concentration range Copt > 100. The heat
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram for the model.
1004 M.A. Al-Nimr et al. / Energy 134 (2017) 1001e1012

1
Rirad    (8)
p s Tg2 Tp2 Tg Tp

1
Rorad    (9)
g s Tg2 2
Tsky Tg Tsky

1:5
Tsky 0:0552T (10)

Convective thermal resistance between the working uid and

glass is obtained through Dittus Boelter Equation (11), [30] and the
convective thermal resistance accounting for wind speed is ob-
tained through the Mc Adams, [31] correlation (12). Moreover, The
internal free convection resistance in the air gap between the
absorber plate and the glass is obtained through Nusselt number in
Equation (13) as [30]:
Fig. 2. Thermal resistance layout.
Dh
Rf (11)
0:023Re0:8 Pr0:4 k
source plays an important role in determining the overall efciency
with an optimum value 25e40% for Copt 10e50 at a heat source 1
Roconv (12)
temperature of 500e900
C, In addition, CPV systems are mainly 2:8 3V
classied in accordance to the amount of the solar concentration,
which is measured in suns, which is known as the square of the   " #
1708 *
1:6
1708sin1:8q
magnication. It is known that low solar concentration ratios PV Nu 1 1:44 1  1
Ra cosq Ra cosq
systems are those systems with an optimum solar concentration in
the range of 1e40 suns, [28,29]. " 1 # *
Ra cosq 3
In the system under consideration, the medium temperature 1 (13)
application is in the range of 80e250
C, therefore the concentra- 5830
tion ratio will be taken in the range 1e20 suns.
where, q is the collector tilt angle and Ra is Rayleigh number ob-
Ein Eout (1) tained by Equation (14). Also (*) indicates that the term between
the brackets has to be neglected if it has a negative value, [30].
2  3
  Tf  Th  
dT w 4 5 g b Tp  Tg L3
 S  Ul Tf  Ta  (2) Ra (14)
dx m cp Rh at y
For thermoelectric generators, the corresponding energy bal-
S GCOpt: (3) ance equations across both hot and cold sides can be written in the
form of Equations (15) and (16):
Evaluating the overall heat transfer coefcient (Ul) that governs  
the heat loss through the collector upper surface is provided in Qh hf A Tf  Th
details through Equations (4)e(12). Both convective and radiative (15)
heat losses are accounted for in evaluating the total amount of heat leff Th  Tc  0:5I2 Re;eff : SNP;eff Th I
losses from the glass layer to the sky and to the ambient air.
Qc ho;Conv: ATc  Ta Qevap
1 (16)
Ul (4) leff Th  Tc 0:5I2 Re;eff SNP;eff Tc I
Rltotal
whereas:
where Rl-total represents the total thermal resistance of the inner
and outer sides of the glass (Ri-eq) and (Ro-eq) respectively, where (Ri- SNP;eff Th  Tc
eq) accounts for the heat transfer between absorber plate and glass
I (17)
Re;l Re;eff :
while (Ro-eq) accounts for heat transfer between glass and ambient.

Rltotal Roeq Rieq Rf (5) Power Qh  Qc (18)

As mentioned earlier, in order to increase the temperature dif-
RiRad RiConv ference across thermoelectric junctions, a cooling effect is applied
Rieq (6)
RiRad RiConv at the cold junction by means of evaporative cooling. Where an
amount of heat that is equal to the latent heat of vaporization is
RoRad RoConv being extracted from the cold junction as water evaporates from
Roeq (7) the wetted porous media. This will result in a decrease in the
RoRad RoConv
temperature of the thermoelectric cold junction. In fact, for evap-
Radiation thermal resistance is shown in Equations (8)e(10), oration to occur there should be a difference in water vapor partial
[30]. pressure between the ambient and the wetted surface.
 M.A. Al-Nimr et al. / Energy 134 (2017) 1001e1012 1005

Furthermore, saturation conditions are assumed to be at the

evaporated wetted surface where relative humidity, f is 100%. Tf  Th 1
Equation (19) shows the amount of heat extracted from the cold f1  leff Th  Tc Reff I 2  SNP eff Th I (27)
Rh 2
side due to evaporation, and hevap dened in Equation (20), is the
evaporative heat transfer coefcient which depends on the
convective heat transfer coefcient, ho,Conv, water vapor partial Tc  Ta 1
f2 Qevap  leff Th  Tc  Reff I 2  SNP eff Tc I (28)
pressure at the evaporated wetted surface and the surrounding, Rc 2
[32]. As mentioned earlier, the conditions at the evaporation sur-
face (wetted media) was assumed to be saturated and the associ- 
h
ated water vapor partial pressure, Pc is obtained by Equation (21). Tf i 1 Tf i *k1 2k2 2k3 k4 (29)
6
The partial pressure of the surrounding is obtained by multiplying
the saturation partial pressure, P in Equation (22) by the value of
where k1, k2, k3 and k4 are being obtained through Equation (30) as
ambient relative humidity, f.
follows:
Qevap hevap ATc  Ta (19)   9
k1 z Tf i; Th i >
>
  >>
>
hevap 16:273  103 ho;Conv
Pc  fPa
(20) k2 z Tf i 0:5h  k1 ; Th i 0:5h  k1 >=
Tc  Ta   (30)
k3 z Tf i 0:5h  k2 ; Th i 0:5h  k2 >>
>
  >
>
  >
;
k z T i h  k ; T i h  k
4 f 3 h 3
25:3175144
T C
Pc e (21) Temperatures across TEG; Th and Tc are to be obtained through
  solving the algebraic Equations (27) and (28) using Newton-
Raphson method, [34]. The value of working uid temperature
25:3175144
Ta
Pa e (22) substituted in the numerical iterations of Newton-Raphson is that
one obtained in the previous step of Runge-Kutta 4th order
Electrical, thermal and overall efciencies are shown below: method, Tf(i1). The Newton-Raphson method is an iterative nu-
merical method used to solve linear and non-linear algebraic
PElectrical
helectrical  100% (23) equations. In this method, the iterations are continuously per-
Qh formed until the calculated relative error in evaluating both Th and
Tc become less than or equal to the prescribed error in the order of
Quseful 106. Finally, the output values of the unknowns are Tc(i1) and
hThermal  100% (24) Th(i1). Newton-Raphson method has been chosen in the current
SAcollector
study for the merit of its fast convergence, where the converged
solution is being reached in a quadratic rate. The adopted numerical
Quseful PElectrical
hOverall  100% (25) method was shown to be stable and easily converged without any
SAcollector difculties. The algorithm used in the current study is shown in the
ow chart presented in Fig. 3.

f1 Th ; Tc 0
(31)
2.2. Numerical solution f2 Th ; Tc 0

The governing ordinary differential Equation (2) is to be solved

J:D f (32)
simultaneously with Equations (15) and (16), by discretizing the
geometry of the collector along the ow direction then solving for
2 3
the temperature distribution Tf, Th and Tc for each segment. The vf1 vf1
6 vT    
previously presented governing equations are rewritten in the form
6 h vTc 7
7 DTh f
of Equations (26)e(28), and are solved numerically. The ordinary 6 7: 1 (33)
4 vf2 vf2 5 DTc f2
differential equation that governs the working uid temperature
distribution, Tf is to be solved using Runge-Kutta 4th order method vTh vTc
[33], which is known for high accuracy particularly at an optimized
step length, h. After discretizing the domain along ow into steps of Th;new Th;old  DTh
length h, starting from the boundary condition at Tf(x 0) Ta and (34)
Tc;new Tc;old  DTc
Th(x 0) Ta. The ow is assumed to enter the collector at the
ambient conditions. The uid temperature at the next segment Relative error is to be obtained through Equations (35) and (36):
location will be obtained explicitly through applying Equations (29)

and (30). The working uid local temperature at any location

T

h;new  Th;old

(Tf(i1)) is to be obtained from the uid temperature and the tem- ErrorjTh

(35)

Th;old

perature of the hot side of the TEG at the previous step Tf(i) and Th(i),
respectively.

 
c;new  Tc;old

dT ErrorjTC

(36)
z Tf ; Th (26)
Tc;old

dx
1006 M.A. Al-Nimr et al. / Energy 134 (2017) 1001e1012

reasonable computational cost. Fig. 4 shows the variation in the

total power output obtained by the numerical simulation and the
error in evaluating energy balance Denergy/S.Ac as illustrated in
Equation (37) at different discretization lengths. The results have
shown that dividing each thermoelectric module longitudinally
into 10 segments provides acceptable results with rational accu-
racy. In addition, the error in evaluating the governing equations at
hot and cold sides of the thermoelectric modules, f1 and f2 were also
tested at different discretization lengths. Residuals were dened
and calculated through Equation (38), considering that f1 and f2
equal to zero at each segment of computational domain. Results in
Fig. 5 support the comparison illustrated in Fig. 4, where it was
concluded that discretizing each thermoelectric module into 10
segments was shown to be quite reasonable. Furthermore, it can be
observed from Fig. 5 that the absolute value of residuals increases
within the discretization lengths between 10 and 15 segments per
module. This could be explained by the fact that Runge-Kutta 4th
order method is used simultaneously along with Newton-Raphson
method to solve the governing equations of the model. In this re-
gard, even though the accuracy of Rung-Kutta 4th order method
increases signicantly as reducing the step length; however, since it
is integrated with Newton-Raphson iterative method, the total er-
ror of Newton-Raphson iterations for the whole computation
domain would accumulatively increase since the iterations stop-
ping criteria is considered the same for all step sizes. Furthermore,
for ner step sizes the enhancement in Rung-Kutta 4th order
method accuracy would overcome the accumulation error effect.

DEnergy Quseful Qloss Ptotal QC  SAc (37)

L

X 
X L
 

Residuals
f1 Tfi ; Thi ; TCi

f2 Tfi ; Thi ; TCi
(38)
x0 x0

3. Results
Fig. 3. Flow chart.
In the following, the numerical simulation results are presented
for the proposed bi-generation system. Table 1 shows the speci-
2.3. Model validation
cations of the thermoelectric module used in the current work.
Moreover, the working uid used in the simulation was air and the
In order to verify the adopted numerical techniques, the gov-
collector dimensions are 1 m in width and 2 m in length. Further-
erning equations were solved at different discretization lengths
more, the electric load resistance was chosen to be equal to the
(dx) according to the ow chart shown in Fig. 3, in order to nd the
effective resistance of the thermoelectric module whereby the
optimum segment step that provided a minimum error with
maximum electric power is obtained.

Fig. 4. Sensitivity to nite element size.

 M.A. Al-Nimr et al. / Energy 134 (2017) 1001e1012 1007

0.003
0.0025

Residuals
0.002
0.0015
0.001
0.0005
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Number of segments per module

Fig. 5. Residuals at different discretization size.

Table 1 efciency and the overall efciency of the system would deteriorate
Thermoelectric module specication. since the enchantment in electrical efciency cannot overcome the
Seebeck coefcient 300 mVK1 @53
C decrease in thermal efciency, especially at high evaporation rates,
Number of PN couples 120 as will be demonstrated in the next sections of this work. However,
Size 50 mm  50 mm  4 mm this problem can be solved with thermoelectric materials of low
Internal resistance 1 Ohm
thermal conductivity and high electrical conductivity where it can
Material Bi2Te3
Thermal Conductivity 1.2 W m1 K 1 sustain a steep temperature gradient across the thermoelectric
module. Such type of thermoelectric materials is now an interesting
research eld where it can be achieved through especially fabri-
3.1. Temperature distribution cated Nanostructures [35].

The advantage of using the evaporative cooling method is to
maintain low temperature at the cold side (heat sink) of the ther-
moelectric modules. Fig. 6 shows the temperature distribution for
both working uid and thermoelectric cold side. It is clear that
temperature proles tend to increase as we move further down-
stream from the collector entrance since working uid becomes
hotter. However, the maximum value of cold side temperature,
which is located at collector outlet, was reduced as a response to
evaporative cooling effect from 95
C to 35
C. As a result, that
promises a potential for enhancing the electrical performance of
the system. On the other hand, this reduction in heat sink tem-
perature leads to a reduction in working uid temperature, because
of the higher heat loss resulted from the reduced cold side tem-
perature, since heat conduction rate across the thermoelectric
module increases with the larger temperature difference across the
hot and cold sides. Consequently, the thermal performance of the
system is negatively affected. Therefore, as the working uid tem-
perature decreases due to using evaporative cooling the thermal
Fig. 6. Working uid temperature and thermoelectric module cold side temperature
locally long ow direction (Ta 25
C, Copt 5 suns, m 0.01 kg/s, V 5 m/s, f 0.5).
3.2. Effect of solar concentration ratio
The effect of solar concentration ratio is shown in Fig. 7, whereas
concentration ratio of 1e20 suns were considered in the simulation
because of low heat source temperature. Increasing the solar con-
centration ratio leads to an increase in the total amount of thermal
energy entering the system. This leads to an increase in the total
electrical power generated through the TEG. Electrical performance
of the system at different values of solar concentration ratio are
shown in Fig. 7 for the two cooling methods applied at the cold side
of TEGs; i.e. with and without the evaporative cooling effect. The
effect of evaporative cooling is shown to have a signicant impact
on the electrical performance of the system at higher values of solar
concentration ratio.
Moreover, for low values of concentration ratio, the total
amount of thermal energy entering the system is consequently low;
thus, the hot side of the thermoelectric generator would attain
lower temperature compared to the cases of higher solar concen-
tration ratios. This means that the ratio between heat loss due to
the evaporative cooling effect to the total amount of heat entering
the TEG, Qh will be high. On the contrary, this ratio would be lower
for higher solar concentration. At concentration ratio of 20 suns, the
total amount of electrical power was shown to reach 1090 W when
adapting the evaporative cooling effect compared to 915 W with
forced convection resulted from 5 m/s wind speed for both cases. A
later illustrated effect of solar concentration ratio is also demon-
strated in Fig. 8, where thermal and electrical efciency tend to
have a contradictory response to the cooling effects applied at the
TEG heat sink. As previously mentioned, the utilization of evapo-
rative cooling effects serves to enhance the electrical performance
of the system where electrical efciency reached 3.97% at 20 suns
solar concentration ratio compared to 3.14% for forced convection
at wind speed of 5 m/s. However, adopting evaporative cooling for
the system increases the total amount of heat loss, thus the thermal
efciency tends to deteriorate consequently. Moreover, unlike the
electrical efciency, the negative impact of the evaporative cooling
1008 M.A. Al-Nimr et al. / Energy 134 (2017) 1001e1012

Fig. 7. Effect of solar concntration ratio on total electrical power produced by the sysem (Ta 25
C, m 0.01 kg/s, V 5 m/s, f 0.5).

Fig. 8. Effect of solar concntration ratio on electrical and thermal efciencies of the sysem (Ta 25
C, m 0.01 kg/s, V 5 m/s, f 0.5).

effect on the thermal efciency was observed to be more dominant
at low values of solar concentration ratio.
3.3. Effect of wind speed
Fig. 9 shows the effect of wind speed on the electrical perfor-
mance of the system. As demonstrated, wind speed plays a more
signicant role for the case of pure forced convective cooling; i.e.
without considering the evaporative cooling effect. Forced
convective heat transfer coefcient is directly related to the wind
speed as the McAdams [31] correlation indicates. At higher values
of wind speed, TEGs tend to be more efcient since there is better
cooling at the cold side, which allows a larger temperature differ-
ence across the generator to be induced. Moreover, the slope of the
curve appears to be steeper for low values of wind speed whereas
the slope tends to decrease at higher wind speeds. That can be
directly related to the fact that the effect of wind speed is a matter
of trade-off between enhancing the electrical efciency and
inducing more heat loss from the collector. The solid line in Fig. 9
shows the variation of total power output with utilizing the evap-
orative cooling technique, where it can be seen that the wind speed
plays a minor role in the electrical performance of the system. The
amount of heat loss due to evaporation is not solely a function of
the forced convective heat transfer coefcient. On the other hand, it
also depends on the water vapor partial pressure and relative hu-
midity for the ambient, thus the electrical performance of the
system appears to be rmer with the variation of forced convective
heat transfer coefcient.
Fig. 10 illustrates the effect of wind speed on the electrical and
thermal efciencies of the bi-generation system. It can be seen that
for low wind speed values, the evaporative cooling effect plays a
major negative impact on the thermal efciency of the system,
whereby thermal efciency drops from 31.9% to 19.1% at wind
speed of 1 m/s. The impact then decays for further increase in wind
speed. Furthermore, evaporative cooling effect implies a huge
enhancement in electrical performance for wind speed of 1 m/s.
However, a 102.6% augmentation in electrical efciency was
observed in compare to 8.87% for wind speed of 20 m/s. Figs. 9 and
10 show more stable electrical performance at different values of
wind speed while using the evaporative cooling technique unlike
the forced convection case where the performance severely de-
teriorates when insufcient cooling for the cold side of the TEG
exists. In the case of forced convection heat transfer the value of
heat transfer coefcient is solely dependant on wind speed as Mc
 M.A. Al-Nimr et al. / Energy 134 (2017) 1001e1012
Fig. 9. Effect of wind speed on total electrical power produced by the sysem (Ta 25
C, m 0.01 kg/s, Copt 10, f 0.5).
Fig. 10. Effect of wind speed on electrical and thermal efciencies of the sysem
(Ta 25
C, m 0.01 kg/s, Copt 10, f 0.5).
Adams [31] correlation provides, thereby the electrical perfor-
mance of the system tends to be more sensitive to the value of wind
speed than that of the case in the evaporative cooling. Whereas the
amount of heat dissipated from the cold side of the module de-
pends on ambient temperature and humidity ratio as well as the
wind speed.
3.4. Effect of ambient temperature
Considering the assumption that air enters the collector at the
ambient temperature, Fig. 11 shows a minor effect of the ambient
temperature on the total power output from the system. It slightly
decreases with increasing the ambient temperature since cold
side temperature would consequently increase. On the other
hand, the evaporative cooling effect serves to endure stable per-
formance for the system over a wide range of ambient tempera-
tures. Despite the fact that increasing ambient temperature leads
to an augmented cold side temperature, it also increases the water
vapor partial pressure difference between the wetted wicks and
ambient since water vapor saturation partial pressure exponen-
tially varies with temperature, which increases the potential for
mass transfer (evaporation), thus more heat is being extracted
from the heat sink.
1009
3.5. Effect of mass ow rate
Mass ow rate plays a major role in the performance evaluation
of the current system whereby the value of mass ow rate controls
the temperature obtained by the working uid as it ows through
the collector. With low ow rates, the working uid reaches
elevated temperatures, thus the total amount electrical power
produced by the system should consequently be enhanced.
Adversely, more heat loss would induce a severe deterioration in
thermal behavior. However, as Figs. 12 and 13 indicate, there exists
a certain value of mass ow rate at which optimum electrical
performance is obtained by the system, with the working condi-
tions: 10 suns solar concentration ratio, 25
C ambient temperature,
5 m/s wind speed and 50% relative humidity. The optimum mass
ow rate that would generate a maximum electrical power by the
system was around 0.01 kg/s. Below this value, the performance
was shown to deteriorate severely since at low ow rates, the
temperate of the working uid would reach an elevated value
leading to the cooling effect at the cold side of the TEG to be
insufcient and therefore it will reach elevated values. This is
deduced from the small difference between the power-outputs
obtained from both cooling techniques. Moreover, beyond the op-
timum value of mass ow rate, the total power output was shown
to decrease since the hot side temperature decreases, which in-
duces small temperature difference across the thermoelectric
generator. Fig. 13 also shows an increase in thermal efciency with
mass ow rate for both types of cooling.
3.6. Effect of relative humidity
The amount of heat extracted from the system by means of
evaporative cooling depends primarily on the saturation partial
pressure at the wetted surface, ambient temperature, forced
convective heat transfer coefcient and relative humidity. Simula-
tion results have shown a greater impact for relative humidity at
lower values of concentration ratios. Fig. 14 illustrates the differ-
ence in the impact of evaporative cooling with relative humidity at
different values of concentration ratios. The slope of the curve was
shown to be steeper at one sun concentration ratio in compare to 10
suns. This can be related to the fact that saturation water vapor
partial pressure varies exponentially with temperature, thus at high
concentration ratios, the saturation partial pressure at the wetted
surface increases, which magnies the potential for evaporation to
occur. On the other hand, for moderate operating temperatures at
1010 M.A. Al-Nimr et al. / Energy 134 (2017) 1001e1012

Fig. 11. Effect of ambiant temperature on total electrical power produced by the sysem (V 5 m/s, m 0.01 kg/s, Copt 10, f 0.5).

Fig. 12. Effect of mass ow rate on total electrical power produced by the sysem (Ta 25
C, V 5 m/s, Copt 10, f 0.5).

4. Conclusion

In this work, a bi-generation direct absorption at plate solar

Fig. 13. Effect of mass ow rate on electrical and thermal efciencies of the sysem
(Ta 25
C, V 5 m/s, Copt 10, f 0.5).
low concentration ratios, the resulting saturation partial pressure at
the wetted surface becomes relatively low, which allows the effect
of relative humidity to dominate whereby the enhancement in
electrical efciency drops from 26.1% at dry climate (f 0) to 11.8%
for moist climate (f 1).
collector integrated with TEG was modeled under optical concen-
tration ratios. Moreover, the proposed system was also simulated
considering the effect of evaporative cooling at the cold side of the
thermoelectric modules in order to enhance the cooling of the cold
junction, which resulted in greater temperature differences across
the thermoelectric module, thereby enhancing the electrical power
output. Furthermore, water evaporating cooling effect was
compared with the case of pure forced convection. A 1-D mathe-
matical model was developed considering steady state operation in
order to simulate the proposed model. The ordinary differential
equation (energy balance for the working uid) that governs the
temperature distribution of the working uid along the collector,
Tf(x) were solved simultaneously with the energy balance equa-
tions across the modules accounting for the heat conduction. Rung-
Kutta 4th order method was used to solve the governing ordinary
differential equations and Newton-Raphson method was used to
solve the algebraic system of equations. The 1-D geometry was
discretized in the direction of uid ow and the temperature dis-
tribution, Tf, Th and Tc for each segment was calculated. The results
showed a signicant effect for the evaporative cooling on the sys-
tem performance particularly at high values of concentration ratio
 M.A. Al-Nimr et al. / Energy 134 (2017) 1001e1012
35
Enhancement in Electrical
30
Eciency %
25
20
15
10
0 0.2 0.4
Rela ve Humidity
10 suns
Fig. 14. Enhancement in electrical efciency due to evaporative cooling effect for different values of relative humidity and concentration ratios (Ta 25
C, V 5 m/s).
whereby a 19.13% augmentation on the total electrical power
output was predicted by carrying out a simulation at solar con-
centration ratio of 20 suns. Moreover, it was shown that wind speed
played a more essential role in the case of pure forced convection,
while it had less impact when considering the evaporative cooling
effect at the cold side of the thermoelectric module. Furthermore,
electrical efciency results showed a counter effect for wind speed
on thermal efciency. Simulation results also showed a more stable
electrical performance for the system while adopting the evapo-
rative cooling method compared to forced convection at different
values of ambient temperature. Mass ow rate was shown to alter
the performance of the system in a signicant manner, an optimal
value of mass ow rate was observed at which maximum power
output was being generated. Furthermore, relative humidity was
shown to have a less signicant impact at high temperature oper-
ation since the effect of high water vapor partial pressure at the
heat sink dominated over the effect of ambient relative humidity.
Finally, as the working uid temperature decreased due to using
evaporative cooling the thermal efciency and the overall efciency
of the system would deteriorate since the enchantment in electrical
efciency could not overcome the decrease in thermal efciency,
especially at high evaporation rates. However, the later problem
could be solved using thermoelectric materials of low thermal
conductivity and high electrical conductivity whereas it could
sustain a steep temperature gradient across the thermoelectric
module. Such type of thermoelectric materials is now an interesting
research eld where it can be achieved through especially fabri-
cated Nanostructures.
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