Feasibility study of a green energy powered thermoelectric chip based air conditioner for electric vehicles

• Published in: Energy (Oxford) 2013-09, Vol.59, p.633-641
• Main Authors: Miranda, Á.G., Chen, T.S., Hong, C.W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: air; air conditioning; Applied sciences; batteries; climate; commercialization; Dye sensitized solar cell; energy conversion; Exact sciences and technology; Ground, air and sea transportation, marine construction; guidelines; Integrated heat/cooling; Losses; Passivity current controller; photovoltaic cells; renewable energy sources; Road transportation and traffic; Solid state air conditioner; Thermoelectric chip; vehicles (equipment)
• ISSN: 0360-5442
• DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2013.07.013

Traditional compressed-refrigerant air conditioning systems consume substantial energy that may reduce the driving performance and cruising mileage of electric vehicles considerably. It is crucial to design a new climate control system, using a direct energy conversion principle, to further aid in the commercialization of modern electric vehicles. A solid state air conditioner model consisting on TECs (thermoelectric chips) as the load, DSSCs (dye sensitized solar cells) as the renewable energy source and high power LiBs (lithium-ion batteries) as an energy storage device are considered for a personal mobility vehicle. The power management between the main power net and the solid state air conditioner interface is designed with an outer proportional-integral controller and an inner passivity based current controller with a loss included model for perfect tracking. This model is intended to comprise thermal and electrical elements which can be tunable for performance benchmarking and optimization of a solid state air conditioning system. Dynamic performance simulations of the solid-state air conditioner are performed, alongside guidelines for feasibility. •Alternative model extraction for dye sensitized solar cells.•Improved and computationally fast model for the cabin air temperature dynamics.•Euler–Lagrange loss included modeling of a buck converter.•Loss-included passivity based inner loop current control.•The thermoelectric chip air conditioner is tested in simulated cooling/heating scenarios.