Quote:
Originally Posted by markweatherill
A turbocharger sounds like the obvious way to recover exhaust energy and I wonder why this system is better?
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Turbos allow an engine to make power more efficiently. However, for economy, you aren't trying to make a lot of power, just enough to cruise along. Modern turbo engines are becoming mire common and get better fuel economy... but only compared to the larger engines they replaced.
Adding a separate cycle to capture heat from the exhaust allows you to store that energy for later. With a turbo, when you capture waste energy, you need to immediately use it to compress the incoming air. I think this is where the big gains will be seen. Although, BMW's system was connected to the driveline and the power was used to propel the car and not stored, and still saw significant gains.