Gas-powered vehicles are extremely energy inefficient. Up to 75 percent of the energy created by combustion engines is wasted as it’s given off as engine heat or expelled via an exhaust pipe. If only we could find a way to harness that wasted energy and turn it into something useful. Well, somebody may have done that.
According to a study published in the scientific journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, a team of researchers claim they’ve found a way to turn exhaust heat into electricity with a nifty little device that can be attached to a car’s tailpipe.
The system is designed around thermoelectric generators, which capture heat and convert it into electricity. When placed near a heat source, like a tailpipe, electrons bounce around from a hot side to a cold side, thus creating an electrical current. The researchers used a semiconductor material made of bismuth-telluride, which efficiently facilitates this electron movement.
The challenge here is maintaining a temperature difference between the two sides of the device without losing efficiency. To solve this problem, the researchers created a heatsink system with fin-like protrusions wrapped around the tailpipe that promotes heat dissipation through forced convection. Anybody with a big chunky fan attached to the CPU in their gaming PC might already be familiar with this concept.
The prototype device produces a maximum output of 40 Watts, which may not sound like much, but it’s enough to power a lightbulb. When the team ran simulations with a car running at a high speed, the system could produce 56 W of power. When attached to exhaust vents on a helicopter, it generated 146 W of power. That’s a pretty impressive amount of energy being recaptured and put to good use rather than just disappearing into the ether.
Who knows what will come of this innovation, if anything at all, but it is impressive to see somebody finally addressing all of the wasted energy produced by terribly, egregiously inefficient gas-powered vehicles.
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