Design and Performance Evaluation of Thermoelectric Cooling System Integrated with PCM (Phase Change Material)

A thermoelectric system integrated with PCM (Phase Change Material) for cooling vaccines has been introduced, thermal management techniques (i) using high-performance heat sink on sides (hot, cold) of module (ii) integration of PCM (ice) on cold side were analysed. Experimental results infer that, by adopting water cooled heat sinks at hot side and air cooling at cold side of module, a COP of 0.124 with minimum cooling temperature (Tc) of 6°C (at 130 min) is attained by the system. Performance simulations were carried with CFD (computational fluid dynamics) model of system for different heat sink configurations (with or without integration of PCM). Simulation results shows that (i) in the absence of PCM, a COP of 0.261 and 0.245 is achieved by the system for heat sink configuration of fin and fan on both sides, fin and fan on hot side and fan on cold side respectively, (ii) COP is improved to 0.406 with the integration of PCM and is 55.55% higher, considering the same heat sink configuration- (fin and fan on both sides), with the cooling temperature of 4°C.Highlights The designed thermoelectric vaccine cooler is capable to overcome the technological and logistical challenge of keeping vaccines in a narrow range of temperature of 2°C to 8°C during transport/cooling.Integration of PCM with the system reduces the time taken to achieve a desired cooling temperature of 2°C to 8°C and reduces power consumption.The system performance was enhanced with a combination of PCM and best heat sink configuration and thus provides a better cooling effect.Capable to be used with solar photovoltaic panelsEnvironmentally acceptable as it does not contain harmful refrigerants such as Chlorofluorocarbons and Hydro chlorofluorocarbons.