COVER STORY Thermo Management

The Thermoelectric Generator

from BMW is Making Use of Waste Heat
Even in a highly efficient, state-of-the-art internal combustion engine, the majority of the energy
contained in the fuel is converted into wasted heat. With a thermoelectric generator, a part of this
wasted energy can be converted into electric energy. So far there are no high temperature thermo-
electric materials commercially available. The BMW Group decided to develop a prototype vehicle
with a thermoelectric generator in order to investigate the interactions of this technology with the
powertrain as well as further fundamental topics.

4 MTZ 04I2009 Volume 70

 The Authors

Dr.-Ing. E.h.
Johannes Liebl
is Head of Efficient
Dynamics at the
BMW Group in Munich
(Germany).

Dr.-Ing. Stephan
Neugebauer
is Head of Thermal
Management at the
BMW Group in Munich
(Germany).

Figure 1: Physical levers for CO2 reduction

Dr.-Ing. Andreas Eder
is Head of Advanced
Development and Simu-
1 BMW Efficient Dynamics function-oriented total vehicle approach lation in the Thermal
is required. Management Depart-
With BMW Efficient Dynamics, the BMW In order to further reduce CO2 emis- ment at the BMW Group
Group established a strategy that ensures sions, the BMW Group began as early as in Munich (Germany).
that even in the future, driving pleasure in the year 2000 to consider all physical
and environmental sustainability are no levers and their interactions with the to-
contradiction. In the past, reductions tal vehicle approach. A systematic proce- Dr. rer. nat.
were achieved by conventional methods dure with corresponding priorities is a Matthias Linde
of improving the powertrain. In order to prerequisite for new approaches to the is Project Manager
achieve further significant reductions, a solution, Figure 1. for Thermoelectrics in
the Thermal Manage-
ment Department at
the BMW Group in
Munich (Germany).

Dipl.-Phys.
Boris Mazar
is a Doctoral Candidate
in the Thermal Manage-
ment Department
within the Advanced
Development and
Simulation Group at
the BMW Group in
Munich (Germany).

Dipl.-Ing.
Wolfgang Stütz
is Head of Advanced
Development of Diesel
Engines at the BMW
Group in Steyr (Austria).

MTZ 04I2009 Volume 70 5

COVER STORY Thermo Management

Figure 2: Systematic approach for CO2 reduction Even in highly efficient engines it is more
energy-efficient to switch them off com-
pletely when no mechanical energy is re-
quired, e.g. when stopped at traffic lights.
By intelligently controlling the generator,
it has further been possible to recover a
portion of the kinetic energy during decel-
eration of the vehicle.
The products of the BMW Group have
tailor-made CO2 packages selected from
this overall package to fit the individual
model character. CO2 reductions of over
20 % have been possible. The BMW Group
has thus been setting the standard in the
automotive industry for more than two
years in this respect.

What measures are considered for se- ance and air resistance, in addition to ac- 1.2 Customer Orientation
ries production has to be decided by each tive aerodynamics that control the air in- It is not enough, however, to verify these
individual car manufacturer. The market takes, depending on the cooling require- measures in the approval test. Eventually,
has a great influence in this respect with ments of the engine or the brakes. Gasoline it is important to proof the effectiveness of
the realization of the product prices, and and diesel engines have been equipped the measures during customer driving. Be-
the chosen measure has to be verified for with high-pressure injection systems. An sides the type of road, the driving style, the
any interactions with the overall vehicle intelligent energy management system traffic flow and the actual ambient condi-
energy system. It is important to determine provides energy only when it is required tions, the energy demanded by auxiliary
where the levers are applied in the func- with a high priority. For example, an elec- consumer loads is an important factor. In
tional process chain caused by energy de- tric pump only circulates the coolant when order to offer the customers an efficient
mand, conversion and provision, Figure 2. cooling is actually necessary. Conventional, driving experience, the BMW Efficient Dy-
mechanically driven water pumps, on the namics concept also offers a gearshift indi-
1.1 Examples of the other hand, are pumping continuously. In cator for particularly low CO2 emissions
Efficient Dynamics Strategy contrast to hydraulic power steering, elec- and efficient driving routes by means of
The structured and systematic approach trically operated power steering only de- the navigation system. In addition, the cus-
was the basis for BMW Efficient Dynam- mands energy when the driver is actually tomer analyses show that the customers
ics. The BMW Group has compiled a cus- changing direction and not when driving demand a not inconsiderable quantity of
tomized package for each model that eve- in a straight line. If the air-conditioning electrical energy, depending on the type of
ry customer receives with the standard compressor is not being used, it is com- vehicle, which raises the CO2 emissions.
equipment of the vehicle, Figure 3. pletely disconnected from the engine by On average, customers with a BMW 1-
The consistent basis is the reduction of means of a clutch mechanism and does series car demand 330 W, those with a
all resistances, such as low rolling resist- not run in idle mode via the belt drive. BMW 5-series car demand 750 W and those
with a BMW 7-series car as much as 1000 W,
Figure 4. This demand for electricity can
add to the energy conversion chain with as
much as one additional l fuel consump-
tion per 100 km in normal customer driv-
ing operation. The standard brake energy
regeneration system provides a proportion
of this energy for free. It is the target to
meet the remaining requirements with
minimal impact on the environment.

2 Thermal Recuperation

Even in a highly efficient combustion en-

gine of the latest generation a large propor-
tion of the latent energy contained in the
fuel is converted into unused thermal en-
Figure 3: BMW 1 series with Efficient Dynamics technology ergy. The various ways of using and con-

6 MTZ 04I2009 Volume 70

verting this thermal energy have been dis-
cussed in detail in various publications
covering basic principles ([1]). Especifically
the exhaust gas, with its very high temper-
ature level, represents a considerable re-
source that is only exploited to a very lim-
ited extent today (e.g. in the exhaust gas
turbocharging or to shorten the engine
warm-up time). The conversion of thermal
into mechanical energy (e.g. with a steam
cycle, see [2]) provides high conversion ef-
ficiencies, however the complexity of vehi-
cle integration is high as well. Due to the
continually rising demand for electrical
energy in the car already described in de-
tail, the conversion of this thermal waste
energy into electrical power is a very inter-
esting step toward further efficiency gains
of contemporary power trains – in particu- Figure 4: Electrical power demand of a BMW 1, BMW 5 and BMW 7 series
lar in customer operation.

2.1 Potential Limits for

Waste Heat Recovery countered. In this case the usable potential A thermoelectric generator is a suitable
The efficiency of each conversion of ther- rises to over 60 %, assuming a coolant tem- method of converting heat into electrical
mal energy is physically limited. These perature of 80 °C as the lower limit. energy in a car. The particular advantage
limits are described with the 2nd law of The levels of efficiency of the Carnot is that no moving parts have to be used for
thermodynamics, which results in the process presented here cannot be fully con- this solid state energy conversion.
Carnot Process as a limiting process of a verted for technical reasons. In order to
machine for the use of a defined amount extract the heat from the exhaust system, 2.2 The Thermoelectric Generator
of heat. From this ideal process you can a heat exchanger is required which can op- The conversion of heat into electricity us-
determine what proportion of the availa- erate at an efficiency of about 65 % assum- ing a thermoelectric generator (TEG) is
ble thermal energy can theoretically be ing a backpressure of 30 mbar to be toler- based on the effect discovered in 1821 by
converted, depending on the process tem- ated at medium-fast inter-urban cruise (ap- Thomas Seebeck. This effect describes the
peratures Thot and Tcold: proximately 130 km/h) and considering generation of an electrical voltage Utherm
the package and weight limitations of a between the contacts of two conducting
Tcold
I = 1 – ___
T Eq. (1) state-of-the-art vehicle. Considering all materials, provided that these are exposed
hot
these losses, only a few percentage points to a temperature difference %T = Thot – Tcold.
The exhaust temperatures represent the for improving the consumption are left The reversal of the Seebeck effect is known
upper limit between 300 °C and 900 °C from the initial 30 to 60 %. If you consider, as the Peltier effect and describes the crea-
during operation, depending on the load however, that the potential savings are tion of a temperature difference when a
requirements. In the European approval doubled, provided the thermal loss energy voltage is applied. The level of the voltage
test NEDC (New European Driving Cycle), is converted into electricity, as this would that can be generated per degree Kelvin
only low engine loads are demanded on av- otherwise have to be generated via the for a specific material is described with
erage. For this reason, the potential limits crankshaft-drive belt-generator route with the Seebeck coefficient B [3], Figure 5.
for using the waste heat (i.e. the proportion an efficiency of about 50 %, the potential
of energy that can be converted from the savings become very attractive on further B = Uthermo/%T · Eq. (2)
exhaust heat into electrical energy) amount consideration. The technical potential
30 %. In actual customer operation, addi- therefore for this form of use, conversion Applying the Seebeck coefficient, the di-
tional higher load requirements are en- of heat into electricity, is up to 8 %. mensionless figure of merit ZT of a ther-
moelectric material can be determined
depending on B, the absolute tempera-
ture T, the electrical resistance S, and the
Figure 5: thermal conductivity L.
Thermo-
electrical effect ZT = B
2 T/SL Eq. (3)
and technical
implementation This ZT number is a common variable for
in a module assessing the effectiveness of a thermo-

MTZ 04I2009 Volume 70 7

COVER STORY Thermo Management

2.3 Vehicle Integration Concept

The integration of a thermoelectric gener-
ator in an exhaust system requires exten-
sive adaptations, depending on the re-
quired electrical recuperation perform-
ance. The boundary condition for the
overall system is represented here by the
maximum exhaust backpressure and the
maximum temperature to which the ther-
moelectric materials can be exposed to.
Figure 6:
ZT values 2.3.1 TEG Design Concept
for different The TEG prototype of the BMW Group,
materials which was assembled at the Institute for
Vehicle Concepts at the DLR in Stuttgart,
consists of three hot gas heat exchangers,
24 Bi2Te3 thermoelectric modules and
electric material at a specific tempera- of up to 0,9 have limited the commercial four coolant heat exchangers with an al-
ture T and contributes to the evaluation use of this technology. Due to new mate- ternately layered construction, Figure 8.
of the energy conversion efficiency when rial developments in recent years, in par- This layered construction is fixed with a
converting heat. ticular through the use of nanotechnolo- pressure of up to 2 MPa using clamps, in
gy, however, it has been possible to in- order to ensure a defined and reproducible
(1 + ZT)½ – 1
ITE = ___________
T · ICarnot Eq. (4) crease significantly the performance of thermal transfer between the hot exhaust
(1 + ZT)½ + ___
cold
T
hot the thermoelectric modules, Figure 7. side, the thermoelectric modules and the
As can be seen from this equation, the ef- ZT values of up to 1.7 have already cold side. A diffuser at the TEG intake opti-
ficiency approaches that of the Carnot ef- been reported for individual PbTe-based mizes the thermal transfer by homogeniz-
ficiency described above, if the ZT value materials [6]. In the development of ma- ing the flow of the exhaust gas.
becomes infinitely large. The challenge fac- terials, it is not only important that these
ing the development of a high-efficiency materials generally proof a high efficien- 2.3.2 Integration of the TEG
thermoelectric material, as can be seen in cy, but in addition that they are not dam- The multi-plate TEG system was integrated
the definition for ZT, is to combine the in- aged by high exhaust gas temperatures as a protoype into the exhaust system of a
trinsic properties of a good electrical con- and the consequent thermal loads. Al- BMW 535i US with automatic transmis-
ductivity with a low thermal conductivity. though there are still no commercially sion. Due to their material properties, the
The optimum is achieved with semicon- available materials for the automotive Bi2Te3 thermoelectric modules used can
ductor materials such as Bismuth telluride application, the BMW Group has decided only be exposed continuously to a tempera-
(Bi2Te3) for low temperatures and lead tel- to develop a prototype car with a ther- ture of about 250 °C. In order not only to
luride (PbTe), or silicon-germanium (SiGe) moelectric generator, in order to exam- prevent overheating, but also excessive ex-
for higher temperatures, Figure 6. ine the interactions of the system with haust pressure due to the hot gas heat ex-
These semiconductors are so heavily the powertrain and other important fun- changer at high operating loads, a bypass
doped their transport properties resem- damental topics. was integrated in parallel to the TEG. By
ble metals. In technical thermoelectric
devices, p- and n- doped semiconductors
are paired as one thermoelectric couple,
Figure 5, and the heat flow drives the free
electrons (n-doped material) and free
holes (p-doped material) from the hot to
the cold side and generate a voltage.
In the past 40 years thermoelectric gen-
erators have been successfully deployed in
space travel (for power generation in space
probes for deep-space missions on which
sufficient energy can no longer be gener-
ated with solar energy). For the heat source
a radioactive material has been used which
provides sufficiently high thermal energy
for several decades [5].
Until now, the low efficiency of the
thermoelectric materials with ZT values Figure 7: History and forecast for the development of material efficiency

8 MTZ 04I2009 Volume 70

 2.4 Simulation Models
The concept of a thermoelectric generator
will only be applicable for series produc-
tion in a car provided that the benefit is al-
ways considered in relation to the complex-
ity in the form of volume, weight and costs.
In addition, an increase of the recovered
electrical power only results in a reduction
of fuel consumption if a restrictive increase
in the exhaust back pressure due to the ex-
Figure 8: Design of the BMW Group TEG and location in the exhaust system haust gas heat exchanger is considered. The
integration of a thermoelectric generator
into the powertrain of a car thus offers a
considerable number of parameters for an
means of two exhaust flaps, one for each of more than 50 % in power output with overall system optimization. Aspects to be
hot gas path, the exhaust mass flow is opti- the application of high temperature considered include the position of integra-
mal divided between the two flows by thermoelectric materials. For this con- tion in the exhaust system, the integration
means of an automated control, Figure 9. cept, no additional radiators were used in the coolant system, the thermoelectric
The heat sink in this prototype vehicle and the waste heat of the TEG was direct- material used and the design of the exhaust
was implemented by means of a separate ly fed into the main cooling system of heat exchanger, Figure 10.
coolant circuit and by two additional radia- the vehicle. Without the use of a flexible overall
tors installed in the wheelhouse. The de- Due to the continuing fluctuating system simulation, it is impossible to as-
coupling of the TEG by means of an auton- thermal boundary conditions depending sess and optimize the recuperation con-
omous coolant circuit permits a reproduc- on vehicle speed and the corresponding cept. Consequently, at the BMW Group in
ible analysis of the TEG behaviour during coolant temperature, the power output of the course of the development process, a
dynamic test drives. a TEG is highly transient which results in parameterized vehicle model was linked
With this setup a TEG output of up to significant requirements for the integra- to a finite-volume model of a thermoelec-
200 W has been achieved at a constant ve- tion into the 12 V vehicle electric system. tric generator [8, 9]. By specifying a speed
hicle speed of 130 km/h. At this operating The electricity feed of the recuperated profile, and thus a default load for the
point and the corresponding exhaust gas thermal energy into the electric system of combustion engine, the vehicle model cal-
temperatures, a temperature of 250 °C is the vehicle with a nominal voltage of 12 V culates the thermal boundary conditions
achieved at the thermoelectric material. depends on several parameters. These are for the TEG on the basis of the engine
As shown in Figure 6, the ZT value of the primarily the current voltage level, the characteristics. Necessary variables are the
Bi2Te3 material is very low (ZT ≈ 0,4) at this state-of-charge of the battery or the instan- exhaust temperature and mass flow, as
temperature, i.e. that already today the taneous usage, the operating point of the well as the coolant temperature and vol-
power output could be significantly raised TEG as well as the properties of the cou- ume flow that are transferred to the TEG
by using a PbTe material. pling device. The coupling device itself model. In the simulation, the thermoelec-
At the Motor Show Geneva 2009, a can consist of a diode or a DC/DC convert- tric generator is divided into control vol-
further developed TEG component was er with an appropriate operating strategy umes, not only in flow direction, but also
demonstrated in a Rolls-Royce concept in order to ensure a maximum power- in all functional layers. By balancing all
vehicle which exhibited an improvement point tracking [7]. incoming and outgoing thermal fluxes
for each control volume, the temperature
matrix is solved, Figure 11.
On the basis of the determined hot
side temperatures of the thermoelectric
modules, as well as their conversion effi-
ciency, the recovered electrical power is
calculated and transferred back to the ve-
hicle model. Further potential for reduc-
ing consumption is obtained by the accel-
erated warm-up of the powertrain. The
Figure 9: Inte- heat flow extracted from the exhaust and
gration of a transferred to the coolant causes the pow-
thermoelectric ertrain to reach its optimum operating
generator into temperature sooner. The hot gas heat ex-
the exhaust changer fitted to the exhaust pipe can
system of a have a disadvantageous effect. The inte-
BMW 535i US grated fins cause an increase in the ex-

MTZ 04I2009 Volume 70 9

COVER STORY Thermo Management

generator for different implementations

and different driving cycles or operating
points is shown.
The characteristic figures of the ther-
moelectric material on which Figure 12
is based vary between ZT = 0,85 and 2,0.
The feeding of the heat flow into the
main coolant system permits the use of
exhaust heat for a faster engine warm-
up. In addition, the influence of exhaust
pipe insulation for increasing the ex-
haust temperatures and the influence of
the integration position of the TEG on
the fuel consumption are shown. The
“after flange” position is about 20 cm
behind the catalytic converter, whereas
“pre-tube” describes a position further
downstream in front of the middle muf-
Figure 10: Relevant parameters of an overall system optimization fler, Figure 13.
Figure 12 clearly shows that for con-
stant operating points, such as during a
highway drive, a considerably higher ef-
fect on consumption can be achieved. Us-
ing currently available materials with
material values of ZT = 0.85, savings of
abut 5 % can be expected, corresponding
to a TEG-generated electrical output of
about 600 W. The higher potentials as
the ZT value rises are on the condition
Figure 11: Discretization of the that the electric power generated by the
TEG into control volumes TEG is actually required by the customer
and would have to be provided by the
conventional alternator if no TEG were
fitted.
haust gas backpressure which has a nega- above, the increased weight of the vehicle The NEDC started with a cold vehicle
tive influence on the engine gas exchange. as well as the increased exhaust gas back- on the other hand offers, also due to low-
Accordingly, the fuel consumption map pressure. er engine loads, less potential for a sys-
of the vehicle model is modified depend- In Figure 12, the potential in fuel con- tem using exhaust gas heat in the region
ing on the exhaust gas pressure rise. sumption reduction of a thermoelectric of 1 % to 2 %. In the US combined cycle
All parts of the overall simulation
model are validated by separate experi-
ments and thus allow realistic assess-
ments of the potentials. An optimization
algorithm linked to the simulation tool
automatically varies the available system
parameters. In a short processing time,
therefore, this tool enables the optimiza-
tion of the cost-benefit ratio of a thermo-
electric generator for any type of vehicle.

2.5 Potential in Driving Cycles

and Constant Driving Points
By using the overall system simulation,
the assessment of the fuel saving by using
a thermoelectric generator in comparison
with a reference vehicle without thermal
recuperation can be achieved. The simu- Figure 12: Potential consumption savings of a thermoelectric generator for different
lated potential consider, as described integration solutions; vehicle basis: BMW 530i

10 MTZ 04I2009 Volume 70

 Figure 13: Exhaust Particularly at the exhaust tempera-
system with possible tures that occur in gasoline engines,
integration positions thermoelectric materials already offer
of a TEG very good recuperation conditions. As
thermoelectrics is particularly suitable
for touring cars, integration in diesel-en-
gined vehicles is favorable. Due to the
lower exhaust temperatures, the poten-
tial of a thermoelectric generator is cor-
respondingly smaller. In order to com-
pensate for this, new integration ap-
proaches must be investigated, and the
driven with higher loads and thus with a celeration phases, as the engine is oper- efficiency of the thermoelectric materi-
higher waste heat output, savings in the ating in the overrun fuel cut-off mode; als at lower temperatures must be in-
region of 2 % to 2.5 % are possible. this is however compensated by the brake creased considerably.
For cold-started driving cycles, de- energy regeneration, i.e. a car with both A further possibility for increasing
pending on the cooling system integra- systems recuperates energy at every oper- performance in the long term is offered
tion, additional reductions of consump- ating point: not only when braking, but by the integration of a thermoelectric
tion can be achieved by reducing the fric- also during acceleration and constant generator into an underhood catalytic
tion; during constant speed driving, the speed. converter. Due to the high temperatures
influence of a faster engine warm-up is prevailing there, the boundary condi-
not applicable. tions for converting heat into electrical
As can be seen from Figure 12, the 3 Outlook energy are very favorable. Furthermore,
thermoelectric generator makes a signif- additional effects could be exploited here
icant contribution to reducing fuel con- The future of the thermoelectric genera- through the multifunctionality of the
sumption, particularly on extra-urban tor depends mainly on the extent to TEG component: By applying current to
roads and on highways, and thus repre- which the efficiency of current materials the thermoelectric materials, for exam-
sents an ideal addition to the BMW brake demonstrated in the laboratory can be ple, the heating of the catalytic converter
energy regeneration (BER). Figure 14 is further developed so that they can be or also local cooling could be supported
based on an example of a freeway drive manufactured economically and can also by simply reversing the voltage polarity.
with acceleration, constant speed and withstand the harsh environment of an
deceleration phases, and the generated exhaust system. In this respect in particu-
power of the current TEGs at the proto- lar, further important developments must References
type stage, a forecast of future perform- be made in the joining technology be- [1] Feulner, P.: Additional Energy-converters in Future
ance and the electrical energy generated tween the thermoelectric semiconductor Vehicles. In MTZ Worldwide Edition 2008 Nr. 9
[2] Freymann, R.; Strobl, W.; Obieglo, A.: The Turbo-
by means of brake energy regeneration material and the heat exchanger struc-
steamer: A System Introducing the Principle of
are shown. It is obvious that the TEG per- ture so that the TEG components can be Cogeneration in Automotive Applications. In MTZ
formance is diminishing during the de- designed more efficiently in future. worldwide Edition 2008 Nr. 5
[3] Nolas, G.S., Sharp, J., Goldsmid, J.: Thermo-
electrics – Basic Principles and New Material
Development, Springer Publications Heidelberg 2001
[4] Sommerlatte, J.; Nielsch, K.; Böttner, H.: Thermo-
electic all-rounders (in German). Physik Journal 6
(2007) Nr. 5, 2007
[5] Nasa Hompage, URL: http://www.nasa.gov
[6] Degen, G.; Haaß, F.: Development of semicon-
ductors for thermoelectric materials (in German);
1st Conference Thermoelectrics (IAV), Berlin 2008
[7] Eder, A.; Fröschl, J.: Integration of a thermoelec-
tric generator into the onboard electric system (in
German). Submitted to: 7th “Powertrain Control
Systems for Motor Vehicles” symposium, Berlin,
June 2009
[8] Mazar, B.; Richter, R.; Eder, A.: Potentials of
Thermoelectric Waste Heat Utilization by Highly
Efficient Powertrains (in German). 1st Conference
Thermoelectrics (IAV), Berlin 2008
[9] Treffinger et al., „Waste Heat Recovery by
converting heat into usable energy“ (in German),
Figure 14: Thermoelectric generators and brake energy regeneration complement each other VDI Conference on Innovative Vehicle Technolo-
ideally, as show here in the case of a freeway drive gies, Dresden, 2008

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