New thermoelectric generator converts vehicle exhaust heat into electricity, boosting fuel efficiency
Have you ever wondered how much potential energy from fuel is lost in gas-powered vehicles? Surprisingly, traditional combustion engines only use about
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In simulations mimicking high-speed environments, the waste-heat system demonstrated great versatility; their system produced up to 56 W for car-like exhaust speeds and 146 W for helicopter-like exhaust speeds, or the equivalent of five and 12 lithium-ion 18650 batteries, respectively.
A great step!
Next is build one.
Then cheap-ish and durable.
I doubt this will ever become any useful at all. 50 Watts is nothing compared to what the car engine outputs at high speed. Even a small engine has some 35kW, i.e. 35000 Watts.
I doubt regenerative braking will be ever useful at all because Lord knows you're not going to get the same energy back that you took out while driving. /s
This is just to increase efficiency.
Sometimes efficiency gains aren't worth the cost and complexity. Regenerative braking produces a shitton more power than this, so it's worth it (also, the motors are already there, just run them in reverse and turn them into generators). You can get the same thing by slapping a solar panel on the roof. Which nobody is doing because it's too costly and complex for what you get out of it.
I could see it maybe being used as an emergency back up alternator, just enough to keep lights on and engine firing (with storage) to get you to safety.
Do alternators fail that often?
Nope. It does suck when they do.
Wouldn't be powerful enough actually. You're better off having a battery that's in good condition. I've done nearly 100 km with the alternator belt off. It being a diesel, it didn't need to fire sparks though.
It being a diesel, it didn't need to fire sparks though.
That's cheating :P