I've been looking into and continuing to try and learn more about some of the methods of waste recovery from the ICE.
I wanted to touch base with the community about some of these ideas ... to share some of the bits I have gathered ... and to see what I can learn from the knowledge base of others.
Cost is prohibitive which is why it isn't done today... so at this point this is mainly just a thought experiment / discussion.
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Even our Insight engines at peak efficiency convert / make use of less than 50% or 1/2 of the energy consumed from the gasoline. more than 50% of the energy of the Gasoline is pumped unused out the radiator and the exhaust... when our engines are further from peak efficiency they waste even more.
Of course our engine and parts still need to be cooled and waste gasses need removed ... so these functions will still need to be done... but can we recovery some of that currently wasted energy?... if we can what are some different methods to do so... and how much might we be able to recover?
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Option #1> Turbo-Generator:
The turbine that spins from the exhaust is converted to electrical energy.
TIGERS was developed and tested back in 2005.
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Option #2> Thermo-Electric Exhaust:
Using Thermo-Electric modules in the exhaust stream to convert some of the energy in the temperature difference between the exhaust gasses and ambient into electrical power.
BSST was prototyped by in 2004 ... modern TE modules are only a bit more than ~5% efficient.
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Option #3> Thermo-Electric Radiator:
Using Thermo-Electric Modules in the radiator system ... the dT is smaller than the exhaust but is still significantly above ambient.
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Option #4> Meredith Effect Radiator:
First seen accidentally in the design of the Mustangs radiator system... A radiator in order to have air flow for it to be able to function also introduced aerodynamic drag... A jet engine makes use of air expanding when it is heated ( usually by burning a fuel ) in order to create thrust... The radiator in the Mustang was discovered to be using the engine's waste heat to heat the air causing it to expand ... this air heating will produce thrust when the design is shaped correctly ... when discovered it was named the 'Meredith Effect' ... sense the radiator system is needed anyway to cool the ICE... designing a radiator to put the waste heat into creating thrust is a method of trying to recover some of the aerodynamics lost in order to have the air flow for the radiator system.
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Option #5> Combine 1 , 2 ,3 , & 4:
The air comes in ... A Thero-Electric Radiator system converts some heat energy into electrical power ... this radiator heats the air in a Meredith Effect designed radiator ... The hot exhaust gasses exit the ICE and enter the Mederdith Effect designed radiator as an additional heat and air pressure source ... A Turbo-Generator or turbine on this heated and pressurized air stream converts some of this thrust into electrical power ... a Thermo-Electric Exhaust system converts some of the reaming heat dT with ambient into electrical power.
I suspect it might be possible to recover up to ~25% of the wasted energy between the Radiator and the Exhaust system... this would be more than ~25% of the energy that currently gets converted to a usable form from the gasoline... which might equate to ~25% increases in MPG / FE ... if you get 60MPG now driven the same way you would get 75MPG or more...
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Synergy with other systems:
Because the generated electrical power might not always be needed immediately... having a larger battery pack would be useful in order to store it from time to time... this larger battery pack combined with MIMA already gives PHEV MPG benefits by offsetting some gasoline with electrical energy from the grid... but the additional storage benefits the waste recovery ... and the ability to control desired Assist would be very useful for for being able to use the extra electrical energy being generated in the waste recovery system.
Waste Recovery ideas
