Well, this is along a theme I have been speculating about. Even though the Prius is an efficient car, the energy from the burning of gasoline eventually winds us as heat energy somewhere. It could be friction with the wind and road, brakes, exhaust gases, or taken away by the radiator as heated air. So is it possible to take some of the heat generated by the Prius, such as heated water in the radiator or heated gases in the exhaust, and convert that back to electicity, before it is put into the environment (where it will eventually go anyway, I suppose)? Could the efficiency of the Prius be increased by 10% as the promise of this technology for the BMW seems to be?
I've spoken with people from Wilson Turbopower (http://www.wilsonturbopower.com/) about their technology for converting heat to electrical energy. Their unit generates more energy as the incoming heat increases and as the velocity of the heat increases. Unfortunately, their technology only gathers waste heat in the air. This now negates the effectiveness of any exhaust filtration (catalytic converter). I noticed that the BMW article mentioned nothing about cleaning the air that's exhausted. I suppose that this converting module can be mounted behind the cat, but this would decrease it's effectiveness. BTW, in the power generation industry, absorption chillers have been used for years to convert jacket heat (radiator) and exhaust air into cold water. The cold water is used to chill buildings. This is just another form of recovering waste heat.
Interesting, but as I understand it, the HSD already increases the efficiency of the ICE more than 10% at the front-end than trying to reclaim it through the backend by soaking up excess mechanical energy into the battery, and/or MG2, not running the ICE as often, and just being a smaller/lighter efficient engine. Also, the Prius already reclaims some of the excess exhaust heat for cabin heating, so I don't think this steam engine could be really that useful depending on weight. In fact, it's just another name for a hydraulic hybrid, and looks more like it's unable to give up the use of current wasteful ICEs.
Reclaiming more of that waste heat would be good though, if it's feasible. You can't take too much or the catalytic converter won't function properly. There are other ways to accomplish this besides what BMW is proposing. I still think the switched reluctance generator is the way to go but I'm not an mecanical (or other type) engineer so maybe I'm off base. Still, a SRG is way more simple than the BMW "steamer" concept. Could probably be retorfitted into any car as well, but again, I'm not an engineer.
don't worry. there are going to be new catalytic converters in the future. i can't tell you what it is cause its secret, but they are there
Way back in the 50's Pratt and Whitney built turbo-compound aircraft engines that were used in DC-7's and Super-G Constellations. These were 18 cylinder radial* piston engines. The exhaust was sent through a turbine, which was then connected to the drive shaft to increase the power. * A radial engine has the cylinders positioned around the crankshaft like spokes on a wheel.
Actually, that is being used in the incorrect context. A beemer is actually a BMW motorcycle. BMW cars are called bimmers. So it would be a Bimmer Steamer.
