View Single Post
Old 02-06-2016, 07:58 PM   #8 (permalink)
JRMichler
Master EcoModder
 
JRMichler's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Phillips, WI
Posts: 1,013

Nameless - '06 GMC Canyon
90 day: 37.45 mpg (US)

22 Maverick - '22 Ford Maverick XL
90 day: 41.9 mpg (US)
Thanks: 188
Thanked 466 Times in 287 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by RedDevil View Post
Wait a minute - you mean a turbo on the air intake, powering an alternator by the difference between atmospheric pressure before and the part vacuum behind the throttle valve, right?

That may work in theory, but you will have a hard time finding a fitting turbine.
Also it would only work on part load; if you idle not enough air is flowing through the turbine to keep it spinning despite the large difference in pressure, and at WOT there is no pressure difference to spool up a turbo.

I confess having thought along these lines myself.
At 2000 RPM at 50% load my 1339 cc engine pumps 22 liters of 50% vacuumized air per second, that dissipates about 1.1 kW of power over the throttle plate.

If you can get 25% of that in electricity, it may just be enough to sing it out for the day without an alternator, but you'd need to charge the battery at home. A bigger battery, preferably a lithium iron one, would be advisable in this setup.
Convert pumping losses into usable energy. If you could figure out a way to control such a power recovery gadget, it could replace the throttle plate. Maybe a supercharger connected to an alternator, with the alternator field controlled by the gas pedal?
__________________
06 Canyon: The vacuum gauge plus wheel covers helped increase summer 2015 mileage to 38.5 MPG, while summer 2016 mileage was 38.6 MPG without the wheel covers. Drove 33,021 miles 2016-2018 at 35.00 MPG.

22 Maverick: Summer 2022 burned 62.74 gallons in 3145.1 miles for 50.1 MPG. Winter 2023-2024 - 2416.7 miles, 58.66 gallons for 41 MPG.
  Reply With Quote