Turbo-Charged Alternator

[t vago]

Originally Posted by Zerohour

I would like to point out something at this point. Different parties are claiming opposite ends of the spectrum.

Maxwell Mk I also says you may be wrong. :-)

What do you mean? Do you mean that the turbine housing does not rely on a pressure differential to convert heat energy into kinetic energy? Or that you can somehow get more power out of an alternator without taking more power from your prime mover?

[Zerohour]

Does anyone know of a place to source used turbo's? I've been trying to dig something up on ebay and craiglist, but there isn't a whole bunch in a reason (and expendable) price range. I know I can get one from local salvage yards between $25-$35, but this requires quite a trip, alot of time searching, and alot of time wrench in winter cold and snow.

Any suggestions?

[Frank Lee]

I found mine at a salvage yard.

[Zerohour]

Thanks Frank

The point was to avoid digging out salvage cars from the snow to pop hoods hoping to find a turbo...

[Robert50mpg]

Hello everyone I am a long term lerker on these forums I never got involed because I was to young to drive on my own but I'm 16 now and I plan on buying a Golf TDI soon, when ever I can find one under $5K. Anyway I was wondering if it would be possible to put a turbine turned by exhaust fume's in the exhaust system that charged up the cars battery. Some questions I have are, would the effects of doing this negate any charging done? and how would this effect the way the car discharges exhaust fumes. Any other input or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[oil pan 4]

There already is a turbine in the exhaust system.
"Back pressure" does nothing good for turbodiesels.

[joat09]

haha brings a to idea to the hybrid turbo

Possible ways to run leads from the exhaust side of a turbo?

[MPGeo]

Originally Posted by t vago

However, in the case where the alternator is powered by something like your turbine, where that's the only thing it's moving, then you have to have some mechanism in place to keep the turbine spinning. Otherwise, you'll find that your turbine will stop altogether at a certain alternator loading.

I am, of course, assuming that you're going to use some sort of wastegated solution or variable nozzle solution to limit your turbine speed. I still don't think you need to spin as fast as what is mentioned here.

So I see that I'm far from alone on this topic, or the solar topic... etc.

I too have been working on my own mental design stages for a turbo driven alternator... and I was actually thinking on gear reduction numbers in the range of 60:1 simply for the torque multiplier function and was hypothetically thinking that perhaps the increased torque output could help minimize that "load stalling" if you will that was being mentioned earlier, and having the speed controlled vial waste gate...

But then my question to you T Vago... how do you know that the turbine would in fact stop?

[MPGeo]

Never mind...I guess I didn't read carefully enough at the "at a certain alternator loading." part of it.

I guess the question is how to calculate that what that certain load would be and see if the resulting range gives you enough lead way to make a viable unit.

[oil pan 4]

Nothing wrong with solar.

Problem with the always dead on arrival idea of a "turbo alternator" is finding a gear box that is tiny and can accept an input speed of 50,000 to 100,000 RPM.