Quote:
Originally Posted by serialk11r
If you have a turbine that minimizes backpressure and use an electric motor to give the compressor a boost, then if you decouple the compressor you can extract a small amount of free electrical power even at part throttle.
|
Finding a safe way to decouple the compressor is the most challenging. Maybe instead of decoupling the compressor, it's still easier to divert the exhaust flow to another turbine connected to a generator, in a way somewhat similar to those twin-stage turbocharging setups.
Quote:
|
In practice, an engine isn't producing much blowdown energy at part throttle, so there's not much to collect, but hypothetically, a hypermiler would be better off deleting the compressor for efficiency.
|
To some extent it could help while cruising, but not all the time. At least not for most engines developed around the downsizing trend.