Conflict between internal combustion engine and thermoelectric generator during waste heat recovery in cars

It is shown that an internal combustion engine and a thermoelectric generator (TEG) arranged on the exhaust pipe of this engine come into the conflict of thermal machines that is related to using the same energy resource. The conflict grows with increasing useful electric power W e of the TEG, which leads to the limitation of both the maximum TEG output power (W e max ) and the possibility of waste heat recovery in cars.