Experimental study on exergy and sustainability analysis of the thermoelectric based exhaust waste heat recovery system

In the present study, the energy and exergy analysis of a thermoelectric based waste heat recovery system of a passenger automobile is performed at different loads. Further, an exergetic sustainability assessment is performed by incorporating parameters like exergy destruction factor, environmental impact factor and exergetic sustainability index. Results revealed that by employing waste heat recovery, the exergetic efficiency can be improved by up to 5.78%. The study showed that the exhaust gas is more suitable for heat recovery as it has 81.8% more exergy than the cooling water.