Steam engine (from exhaust heat)

[cfg83]

iHero -

Originally Posted by iHero

Looks like BMW is building a gas / steam hybrid.

BMW Developing a Steam/Gas Hybrid Engine : TreeHugger

I really like this part :

Even more impressive: the drive has been designed to be retrofitted into existing gasoline-only Beemers, meaning that the entire fleet of BMWs could incrementally reduce fuel consumption almost overnight.

Retrofit-Mania!!!!

CarloSW2

[azraelswrd]

+15% efficiency with steam boosters? Intriguing...

[iHero]

Looks like another company working the steam option -- there is obviously something to this idea.

Clean Power Technologies still working on new steam-assisted cars - AutoblogGreen

[Big Dave]

Plus 15% efficiency is pure ad-man's hype. Plus 1% would be more like it.

There are a lot of car companies on the ropes and MPG is a hot selling point. If they could really deliver a 15% improvement with Rankine cycle compounding, why don't they? Could it possibly be they know they cannot deliver?

[SuperTrooper]

When BMW started working on it in 2005 they predicted it would be 10 years before a production model was ready. There's a ways to go yet.

[iHero]

With the amount of heat pooring out of any ICE vehicle after 15 minutes -- a simple design of copper tubing, small turbine and and alternator -- could save a fair amount of gas.

If you have a short commute -- steam will never work except for recharging.
I think the solar collector idea has merit for recharging during work ours too --much more so than solar panels.

I'd build one -- but my two prototypes severly limit any project time.

Right or Wrong ? Does more IR than UV pass through the atmosphere?

[Big Dave]

Bill Lear (daddy of the Lear Jet) tried this back in the 70s. It wasn't worth the effort.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Plus 15% efficiency is pure ad-man's hype. Plus 1% would be more like it.

There are a lot of car companies on the ropes and MPG is a hot selling point. If they could really deliver a 15% improvement with Rankine cycle compounding, why don't they? Could it possibly be they know they cannot deliver?

Actually plus 30% was a reality on large ship size motors and was employed sucessfully but caused contamination and subsiquent daily maintenance, but a ship also has all the room in the world for such engines, a small version would need to use dangerous low boiling point liquids to be effective, especially given that most of the motors heat goes into the radiator fluid at relatively low temps which is hard to recover usefully.

Given that 50-75% of your motors full energy is lost in the form of heat this is no small energy source, sadly heat is difficult to make locomotion out of.

There is a guy in Australia that has been converting full size cars and trucks to steam since the 70's. A well designed capillary steam engine weighs no more than a standard diesel. But then you have to take care on what type of water you use and again the irritating cleaning.

Well worth more reasearch, main issue developing a fully contained unit like AC to handle the dangerous low boiling point liquids available or a safe low boiling point liquid needs to be developed.

And on a side note, I have long wondered why engine heat wasn't used to make passive AC. It wouldn't require any extra power from the motor and would be Always on for better or worse.

[Big Dave]

Bill Lear tried an organic soup he called "Learium" to replace water as his working fluid. Lear found out why water was the better fluid.

You could use an adsorption refrigeration system to cool your car but it would be huge. Adsorption refrigeration is about a third the efficiency of thr Rankine cycle used today.

There is nothing new under the sun. That's completely true in energy technology. Somebody has already tried it. What works is what is in use. What doesn't work is a museum curiosity.

Material and theoretical advances have triggered a few new ideas. Algal biofuels. Aneutronic fusion. Vanadium redox batteries. Not much else.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

There are a lot of car companies on the ropes and MPG is a hot selling point. If they could really deliver a 15% improvement with Rankine cycle compounding, why don't they? Could it possibly be they know they cannot deliver?

Since when has mpg been a big selling point? June, maybe? On experience to date, it takes a LOT longer than 3 months for auto executives to pull their heads out of their butts. Then consider how many years they've spent going in front of Congressional committees and saying that they couldn't POSSIBLY meet those CAFE standards. So now they're supposed to turn around and say "Gee, it looks like we could have done it all along"?

When I think about the actions of the auto manufacturers since the '70s oil embargo, and even before, I can only conclude that they simply don't WANT to make cars that get good mpg.