Thermoelectric generation with reduced pollutants made possible by bio-inspired computing

The debate to establish a balance between the generation of electricity and the preservation of the environment is, extraordinarily, important. This article proposes, as a short-term solution, the replacement of diesel oil by natural gas in thermoelectric generation. Natural gas emits 75% less pollutants to the environment than diesel and has a similar energetic efficiency. As a strategy for this replacement to occur safely, the computational modeling was developed in a Bioinspired Computing methodology, called Genetic Algorithm (GA). The GA incorporated all the variables of the electricity and natural gas networks, presented in the mathematical modeling. The result was a significant reduction in the level of pollutants emitted, with high stability in the electrical power system.

On thermal problems of the solar thermal multigeneration: new nanomaterials and working fluids

The study considers various thermophysical problems, including the processes of heating new nanomaterials and nanofluids, as applied to solar thermal multigeneration (steam generation and turbine and turbineless conversion into electrical energy), as well as thermoelectric generation (solar thermoelectric generation) using new nanomaterials, including graphene and its composites. The main unsolved problems of thermohydrodynamics and heat transfer in such systems are noted.

Parameter Identification of Optimized Fractional Maximum Power Point Tracking for Thermoelectric Generation Systems Using Manta Ray Foraging Optimization

Thermoelectric generation systems (TEGSs) are used to convert temperature difference and heat flow into DC power based on the Seebeck theorem. The basic unit of TEGS is the thermoelectric module (TEM). TEGSs have gained increasing interest in the research fields of sustainable energy. The output power from TEM is mostly reliant on differential temperature between the hot and cold sides of the TEM added to the value of the load. As such, a robust MPPT strategy (MPPTS) is required to ensure that the TEGS is operating near to the MPP while varying the operating conditions. Two main drawbacks may occur in the conventional MPPTSs: low dynamic response, such as in the incremental resistance (INR) method, and oscillations around MPP at steady state, such as in the hill climbing (HC) method. In the current research work, an optimized fractional MPPTS is developed to improve the tracking performance of the TEGS, and remove the two drawbacks of the conventional MPPTSs. The proposed strategy is based on fractional order control (FOC). The main advantage of FOC is that it offers extra flexible time and frequency responses of the control system consent for better and robust performance. The optimal parameters of the optimized fractional MPPTS are identified by a manta ray foraging optimization (MRFO). To verify the robustness of the MRFO, the obtained results are compared with ten other algorithms: particle swarm optimization; whale optimization algorithm; Harris hawks optimization; heap-based optimizer; gradient-based optimizer; grey wolf optimizer; slime mould algorithm; genetic algorithm; seagull optimization algorithm (SOA); and tunicate swarm algorithm. The maximum average cost function of 4.92934 kWh has been achieved by MRFO, followed by SOA (4.5721 kWh). The lowest STD of 0.04867 was also accomplished by MRFO. The maximum efficiency of 99.46% has been obtained by MRFO, whereas the lowest efficiency of 74.01% was obtained by GA. Finally, the main findings proved the superiority of optimized fractional MPPTS compared with conventional methods for both steady-state and dynamic responses.