The Prius re-captures energy normally lost to the brakes. Could something similar not be done with the suspension? I'm thinking of some kind of electronic shock-absorber. I'd imagine that even on the smoothest roads that thing is moving in a repetitive, predictable way up and down - ideal for a small electric generator. Better yet - it would have its maximum effect on long distance routes where the benefits of the Prius are not as high as they are in urban environments. What think we? Great idea or impossible for a whole host of technical reasons I have missed?
Sounds perfectly logical to me! Couple this with small wind turbines behind the grill and a larger solar panel on the roof and I'd think the Prius would be a lot closer to being self suffecient! Not quite to the point of self sustaining, but close. The ability to recharge the battery without the use of the engine would have a tremendous effect on fuel effeciency!
Not impossible, just impractical. Where the amount of available energy is small the extra cost, and worse still extra weight, is just not worth it. For example if the extra apparatus needed for the suspension weighed just 2kg, it would probably add about 10 Watts extra average power to run the car (based on every 1% increase weight adding about 1/2 a percent of extra power usage). Now if this device made say 5 Watts extra power then it wouldn't exactly be money well spent! Interestingly an old motor bike collector once told me that there was one vintage motorcycle (early 1900's) that used the up/down motion of the suspension to power the fuel pump. Apparently as roads and highways improved over time that these bikes stopped working properly, with riders having to stand and bounce up and down periodically just to keep it running. Something more practical and quite likely to soon appear on at least some production cars is a thermoelectric generator. These are semiconductor devices (no moving parts) that can extract electrical power directly from the waste heat of the exhaust system. BMW and VW are both actively researching these and I think they're up to several hundred watts of power. Not quite enough to replace the alternator on a conventional car but getting somewhere in the ball park.
It's more likely that this will happen if cars eventually use some sort of electronically damped suspension. If the components are there already it makes sense to capture the wasted energy, just as regenerative braking uses the electric motors already in the car. Otherwise the weight and cost are prohibitive. Tom
It looks like this is not a matter of "if," but "when," and cost:benefits. Electricity-Generating Shock Absorbers Energy-Producing Solar Paint There is also this for direct capture of exhaust enery as electricity: More-Efficient Thermoelectrics "... thermoelectric generators that convert automobile exhaust into electricity, could be ready in three to four years."
How about a turbine that's powered by exhaust? Like a turbo, but instead of the exhaust powering the turbine that forces air into the intake, it powers an electric generator?
LMAO. This thread is starting to sound like "Direct Exhaust Injection" Asinine Engineering: Direct Exhaust Injection
Illustration is wrong. You need dual o-pipes to make this work: O Pipe (Dual Exhaust) - $99.95 : KaleCoAuto, Hard to find automotive items!
Rokeby, You just made my day. I actually had an idea that's feasible. Course someone else thought of it first but most of my ideas end up looking like the Direct Exhaust Injection system above.
could it be done, sure. Absolutedly, the actual product doesn't exist yet, but the technology certainly does. Heck, I remember seeing a pair of shoes that were made to generate electricity with every heel strike. The problem is the cost/benefit equation. The cost of such a system, would outstrip the electricity generated for now. Especially on a hybrid, which always has the ICE. On a full electric, it could make a little more sense, since more electric juice without more batteries is always good. But still, as of now, the cost of such a system would outweigh the benefits. It is the same thing as the idea of putting solar panels on the roof to charge the battery. It can be done, the technology is there already; but the cost of the implementation is pretty high and the actual power produced is pretty low. So we don't see it yet. Now the Fisker Karma is supposed to get solar panels on the roof, but that is not really in the same price range as the Prius.
