PURPOSES : The purpose of this paper is to investigate the application of thermoelectric technology to concrete structures for harvesting solar energy that would otherwise be wasted. In various fields of research, thermoelectric technology using a thermoelectric module is being investigated for utilizing solar energy. METHODS: In our experiment, a halogen lamp was used to produce heat energy instead of the solar heat. A data logger was used to record the generated voltage over time from the thermoelectric module mounted on a concrete specimen. In order to increase the efficiency of energy harvesting, various factors such as color, architecture, and the ability to prevent heat absorption by the concrete surface were investigated for the placement of the thermoelectric module. RESULTS : The thermoelectric module produced a voltage using the temperature difference between the lower and upper sides of the module. When the concrete specimen was coated with an aluminum foil, a high electric power was measured. In addition, for the power generated at low temperatures, it was confirmed that the voltage was generated steadily. CONCLUSIONS: Thermoelectric technology for energy harvesting can be applied to concrete structures for generating electric power. The generated electricity can be used to power sensors used in structure monitoring in the future.

PURPOSES: An conventional method for electric power generation is converting thermal energy into mechanical energy then to electrical energy. Due to environmental issues such as global warming related with CO2 emission etc., were the limiting factor for the energy resources which resulting in extensive research and novel technologies are required to generate electric power. Thermal energy harvesting using thermoelectric generator is one of energy harvesting technologies due to diverse advantages for new green technology. This paper presents a possibility of application of the thermoelectric generator、s application in the direct exchange of waste solar energy into electrical power in road space. METHODS : To measure generated electric power of the thermoelectric generator, data logger was adopted as function of experimental factors such as using cooling sink, connection methods etc. Also, the thermoelectric generator、s behavior at low ambient temperature was investigated as measurement of output voltage vs. elapsed times. RESULTS: A few temperature difference between top an bottom of the thermoelectric generator is generated electric voltage. Components of an electrical circuit can be connected in various ways. The two simplest of these are called series and parallel and occur so open. Series shows slightly better performance in this study. An installation of cooling sink in the thermoelectric generator system was enhanced the output of power voltage. CONCLUSIONS : In this paper, a basic concepts of thermoelectric power generation is presented and applications of the thermoelectric generator to waste solar energy in road is estimated for green energy harvesting technology. The possibility of usage of thermoelectric technology for road facilities was found under the ambient thermal gradient between two surfaces of the thermoelectric module. An experiment results provide a testimony of the feasibility of the proposed environmental energy harvesting technology on the road facilities.

Recently, it was under an obligation to install the VOCs recycling unit in the cleaners and the gas station to prevent from discharging VOCs emitted from the cleaners and the gas station. The objectives of this study was to investigate the VOCs recycling unit used thermoelectric module to recycle the organic solvent from the cleaners and after washing. The traditional way was the use of the VOCs recycling unit with the compressor. But the recycling unit has many weak points , noise, size, danger of fire, additional pollution and so on. In order to improve these weak points, it was developed the new VOCs recycling unit using the thermoelectric module through this study. The cooling block with 32 thermoelectric module was applied to cool the hot VOCs where comes to occur from the dryer in high temperature condition. Also a water-cooled equipment was used to remove the heat from the hot surface of thermoelectric module. The experimental results from new VOCs recycling unit shows that the maximum recovery rate of the unit was 83.2 % and the recycled VOCs' purity was 98 % or more. And the noise problem was solved by applying the thermoelectic module to the VOCs recycling unit.