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They have these special heat cells out now that are like solar cells, except they are tuned to work with pure heat instead of light. You could put some around the engine block. This would use up the heat, which would cool the engine. There would be a backup cooling system in case the car needed it. There
would also still be an alternator. Maybe while the alternator ran the car's electrical system, the heat cells could charge an extra battery or something that you could download into your house for use or maybe hook up a special thing at the gas station and sell the power back for a gas price discount. This would be very good in hybrids.
Science News, 1997
http://www.sciencen...c97/9_6_97/bob1.htm
Nice overview but a bit off the frontpage at this time. [Dog Ed, Sep 23 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]
Research into thermoelectrics--
http://www.nal.go.j...er/99summer/p02.htm
Not as much background as the Science News link but more current by a couple of years. [Dog Ed, Sep 23 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]
internal combusion steam engine
http://www.halfbake...on_20steam_20engine
Same fundamental idea (reuse the waste heat from combustion engines), but it uses an old-fashioned steam engine rather than a newfangled thermoelectric junction thing. [egnor, Sep 23 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]
Peltier TEG
http://www.chipcent...feb00/Q12_99_62.htm
Reverse the polarity! [phoenix, Sep 23 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]
Peltier FAQ
http://www.melcor.com/faq.htm
[phoenix, Sep 23 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]
Several links
http://www.dailykos...005/12/15/193331/41
DOE has a research project into this, Hi-Z has a peltier system available for big rigs, [skids, Apr 03 2006]
[link]
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fogfreak, can you give me a link to the heat cells? I'll Google on them but if you have a direct hit so much the better. Thanks. |
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Dog Ed: I just read about the cells in a popuar science magazine about furnaces that could generate their own power, and the house's power. They have not made the furnaces yet, but do a search on the black midnight stove. The company has made a woodstove for the purpose. Sorry I couldn't help. |
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It would probably be way more efficient to just strip out the combustion engine, replace it with electrothermal furnaces, and burn the petrol in them directly. All the benefits of an electric vehicle but without the -tiny- stumbling block that is eight tons of lead-acid batteries. |
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This is not the idea I thought it was when I read the title - I was thinking in terms of air-conditioning, which, although it would be much more difficult to pull off, would be much cooler (drum fill). It gets my vote, though, because I don't like the second law of thermodynamics. If we can cheat a little more work out of that gas, that's a good thing.
Good point, too, about hybrid engines - they would be just the place for this. |
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[fogfreak] This is bakable. All we need are some Peltier devices (okay, lots), heat sinks and a voltage regulator. |
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Heat loss through the exhaust sytem is considerable. You could also capture heat from the brake discs. |
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I can't imagine the engine running any hotter than it does now. |
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Drain the cooling system and see how hot it can get. |
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UnaBubba - ...or do away with brakes altogether. Just get the wheels to spin up a huge flywheel to slow the car down. Then connect the flywheel to the wheels again to start the car going (just don't try to brake while cornering). |
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Hydraulic-charge braking. Braking pressurizes a tank which then is discharged for acceleration. See Ford's Tonka truck concept for details. |
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The idea is a bit mis-named, in that any heat power recovery system isn't a "cooling" system, perse. If anything, they'll be an abstacle to cooling. However it's an obstacle that is tolerable within design constraints, and there is energy there to be had (note my link to left.) |
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Solid state peltiers are not very efficient, but still in use because it's better to collect some energy than none. Future research looking into clathrates says it's theoretically possible to get up to the carnot limit. If anyone wants to play with a peltier that is optimized for power generation, small quantities are available online from a CA company named tellurex (other companies too but that's the only one I could find with prices listed and an order form on the webpage.) |
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Unfortunately car engines aren't quite hot enough to use a second such technology that is already up to 30%+ efficiency: thermophotovoltaics. |
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