TOPICAL COLLECTION: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THERMOELECTRICS 2019 Motorcycle Waste Heat Energy Harvesting Using Thermoelectric Generators MOHD SHAHARIL OMAR , 1,2 BALJIT SINGH, 1,3 and MUHAMMAD FAIRUZ REMELI 1 1.—Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. 2.—e-mail: shaharilomar@gmail.com. 3.—e-mail: baljit@uitm.edu.my Meeting the increasing global demand for energy coupled with the depletion of fossil fuel sources has created breakthroughs in research on waste heat energy harvesting devices. By utilizing waste heat, energy consumption does not grow and is efficiently used instead. Harvesting energy from automobiles has promising outcomes for the application of thermoelectric generators (TEGs). Heavy duty diesel engines, pick-up trucks, sport bikes and model airplanes are involved in research attempting to do away with heavy batteries or alternators. For this study, a single cylinder, 100 cc Honda EX5 Dream, which is also known as ‘Kapcai’, was used to study the viability of installing TEGs for waste heat recovery in underbone of the motorcycle chassis. The natural convection passive cooling system of fin was used to dissipate heat for cold side of the TEGs to maintain temperature difference across TEGs of the motorcycle waste heat recovery system. Two currently commercially available TEG modules were used and were connected in series and parallel in order to obtain output power. Results for a single module of each of the two TEGs testing recorded a tem- perature gradient of 57.5 °C and 62.7 °C with open circuit voltage of 1.677 V and 1.704 V, respectively. The highest temperature difference and output voltage were recorded at 73.2 °C and 4.2 V in series arrangement for both the TEGs. In the same arrangement, the highest power output obtained was 551.0 mW. The outcomes from this field testing shows the applicability of waste heat recovery from the underbone chassis of a typical motorcycle in charging small portable devices such as smartphones or power banks for the rider of motorbike. Key words: Thermoelectric, energy harvesting, motorcycle, waste heat, generator INTRODUCTION Energy plays a vital role for the development of human civilization, especially for economic growth due to the rising global population. For electricity generation, fossil fuels remain the dominant sources of energy worldwide, account- ing for 77% of the demand increase from 2007 to 2030. 1 To meet the increasing demand for energy, the rate of depletion of non-renewable energy resources must be reduced. Despite improve- ments in vehicle emissions control and fuel efficiency, the increase of motor vehicles on roads has caused an increased in petroleum consump- tion and rejected heat to the environment. This has led to excessive air pollution and heat waves. Recent analysis of the energy distribution of the internal combustion engine found that only 25% of useful energy was obtained for the engine output shaft while 40% of waste heat was dis- charged through the exhaust system. Conversion of 10% of this waste heat would yield a 20% (Received August 21, 2019; accepted December 3, 2019) Journal of ELECTRONIC MATERIALS https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-019-07874-4 Ó 2019 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society