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• The porous medium micro-combustor and thermoelectric system is developed. • Effects of the heat exchange and Seebeck converse effect on temperature field are analyzed. • Thermoelectric conversion performance of the micro thermoelectric system is analyzed. • Optimization directions of micro-thermoelectric system are proposed. The energy conversion of micro combustion system has become the main research direction at present. However, due to the small size of micro-combustors, they face challenges such as unstable combustion and difficulty in effectively converting generated thermal energy into usable energy. This work mainly studies the thermoelectric conversion system based on porous medium micro-combustor, which mainly uses the high energy density of micro-combustor to replace the traditional battery energy and improve the working time of small equipment. And this work also establishes the coupling model of porous medium micro combustor and thermoelectric module. By analyzing the performance parameters of the micro thermoelectric system in different flow rate, the results show that at low flow rates, semiconductor materials with better thermoelectric performance, such as Bi 2 Te 3 , can be used to improve the energy conversion efficiency of the system. However, the low heat release from combustion leads to lower maximum output power. At high flow rates, there is a significant improvement in the thermoelectric conversion performance of the system, but it is limited by the temperature of the thermoelectric materials. To optimize the impact of these factors on micro-thermoelectric systems, the optimization methods were analyzed as: (1) The temperature uniformity of micro-combustor wall can be improved by using mixture with low equivalence ratio and high flow rate; (2) enhancing the thermal conductivity of the micro-combustor and porous medium to improve the thermal conductivity of micro thermoelectric system; (3) Using CH 4 -H 2 mixed combustion to reduce combustion temperature and ensure that thermoelectric materials work within the normal temperature range; (4) The segmented thermocouple is used to improve the thermoelectric performance of thermoelectric module. The results show that using a mixture with low equivalence ratio and high flow rate can achieve a maximum conversion efficiency of 5.51%. Using mixed combustion to reduce combustion temperature can increase the maximum output power of the system to 57.8 W. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Influencing parameters of the flame optimization schemes are summarized. • Influence parameters of the micro-thermal photoelectric system are analyzed. • Influence parameters of the thermoelectric conversion efficiency are investigated. • Technical limitations and development of the micro power equipment are summarized. Hydrocarbon fuel and hydrogen are used as fuels for micro power equipment to replace traditional batteries and provide energy for micro-electromechanical systems, which has become a hot research direction. However, due to the reduction in the size of micro power equipment, not only the flame in the micro combustor is affected, but the overall energy conversion efficiency of micro power equipment is also affected by the size effect. Therefore, it is significance to analyze the energy loss and design optimization methods pertinently from the point of energy conversion. In the past ten years, many researchers have done research about the direction, which has been reviewed in this article. For the flame optimization, the influencing parameters of optimization methods such as exhaust gas recirculation, cavity combustor, bluff body combustor, porous media combustion, and hydrocarbon fuels mixed with hydrogen are summarized. For the micro-thermal photoelectric system, the influence parameters of combustion efficiency, radiant efficiency, spectral efficiency, view factor efficiency and photovoltaic cell efficiency are analyzed. In the micro-thermoelectric system, the influence parameters of combustion efficiency, heat conduction efficiency and thermoelectric conversion efficiency are analyzed. For the micro internal combustion engine, the influencing parameters of combustion efficiency and conversion efficiency are analyzed. Finally, the technical limitations and development of each micro power equipment are summarized in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]