Self-heat recuperation (SHR) technology has been proven to reduce exergy loss in different process systems, which lead to large energy savings due to its non-combustion process. The purpose of this research is to develop a novel self-heat recuperative heat circulation system using thermoelectric (TE) device as a heat circulator for gaseous and non-gaseous systems. The small Delta T usage of TE heat circulator enables the use of the high efficiency region of TE devices. A mathematical simulation of the performance of a TE heat circulator considering the effects of surface area, heat transfer coefficient and pellet height is presented in this study. Using a TE heat circulator with a surface area of 1 m(2) to boil 1 kg of HFE-7100 (R) an energy reduction of 82% was calculated compared to the conventional fired heater case. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.