Modelling and simulation of the energy recovery from hot steel pieces after an induction treatment by thermoelectricity

Abstract

Thermoelectricity has a huge potential as an energy recovery technology in a large number of fields in which heat energy is lost and it is exactly what a thermogenerator needs to produce electricity, due to the Seebeck effect. In the steel production by induction furnace, at the end of the production process, the pieces retain a certain heat energy which nowadays is dissipated into the ambient cooling them. Using thermoelectricity to recover this energy is an opportunity to obtain electricity and use it upstream in the production line which otherwise would be lost. In this thesis there have been studied the basic and the latest thermoelectricity theories in order to obtain a model which can define as accurate as possible the performance of a thermogenerator. Moreover, there has been developed a computer program with which it is possible to calculate the thermogenerator performance and find the ideal measures of a thermogenerator in order to obtain the maximum power or efficiency, depending on what is needed. This thesis includes some experimental tests in order to evaluate the differences between the theoretical and experimental results. Finally, there has been developed a possible solution for a particular case of energy recovery for steel pieces produced by induction furnace.