Analysis Of Energy Harvester Circuit for A Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting System (TEHs) At Asphalt Pavement

The overriding challenge of our time is manifold from climate change, global energy shortages, and even environmental pollution. The search for renewable energy sources that are economical, efficient, and clean is vital. For this purpose, industries have looked at the environmentally friendly usage of renewable energy from many angles including in pavement harvesting. Choosing the right power management circuit for harvesting energy with a thermoelectric generator is an important element. However, most of the energy harvesting (EH) circuits on the market are typically designed to meet solar harvesting applications. Commercial EH circuits typically have an MPPT ratio of 0.7-0.85 for PV cells and 0.5 for TEG. As a result, if it is used with a thermoelectric source, a stable output cannot be obtained. Therefore, this project aims to analyze, an EH circuit that is designed for thermoelectric energy harvesting on asphalt pavement and to analyze the cold-start performance of the power management circuit. To confirm the feasibility of the energy harvesting project with a thermoelectric generator, the project has been tested in the laboratory with asphalt pavement. Based on the result simulation, IC SPV1050 is able to fully charge to 4V between 3 to 8s. However, LTC3105 is able to charge faster than SPV1050 between 0.19s to 0.21s but is only able to reach 2.4 V. However, the results in laboratory experiment show SPV1050 is able to charge 4.1 V for about 1 hour, while LTC3105 unable to charge to 44 mV. These results show that ICs with a charge pump type of cold start are able to boost and charge the voltage much faster than the transformer type. In conclusion, the difference in IC energy harvesting in terms of cold start, component use, technical issues from the circuit board and etc can influence the desired voltage reading and make the charging process faster to help increase the performance of the power management circuit.