Engine waste heat.

[tinknal]

While driving today I got to thinking about all the wasted energy in a conventional auto. Much of this energy is in the form of heated coolant. Now except for the little heat you use to warm the interior on a cold day, all this energy is wasted. It seems to me that there should be a way to recover this heat and turn it back into useable energy. Is it just not worth it, or has no one figured a practical way to utilize this energy?

[beorning]

You can cook dinner on your manifold.

[tinknal]

Oh crud, I intended to post this in Alternative Energy forum. Mods, please feel free to move it.

[ericjeeper]

I think heating the interior of the car works the best. summertime ?????

[Old Vet]

The energy is not wasted. It heats the air. The heat is not enough to make any other useabe energy.

[pancho]

That idea is already used in some power plants. Co-gen plants use the waste exhaust heat to fire boilers and for use in absorbers. Saves a lot of money as you get to use the fuel two times.

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by pancho

That idea is already used in some power plants. Co-gen plants use the waste exhaust heat to fire boilers and for use in absorbers. Saves a lot of money as you get to use the fuel two times.

Yeah, that is kind of my idea. A cars cooling system really isn't that different from a pressurized steam system.

[ace admirer]

I think you will find that its worse that you think...about 80% of your engines energy is wasted.. most auto engines are only about 20% eff.

running engine hotter helps....alittle turbo chargers help....alittle. no venturis as in carburators help....alittle. running high compression ratios helped.....but with the quality of gas...thats history.

the long/short of it is that we need a new motive of transportation for light loads electric cars probably, for heavy loads we will need railroads,,,,electric probably,

i sometimes wonder if we could develope new forms of transportation with 300 or 600 billion we are spending to protect oil supplies and oil companies. lock and load.

[mightybooboo]

TMEN mag had some articles using a car engine as a generator,than running the coolant water thru a large tank to make hot water .There is a lot of wasted heat that got used and made a pretty slick water heater on the cheap.Might make a loop system if you are going to drink it maybe?

BooBoo

[blufford]

The catylitic converter also gets toasty. One day I grabbed a hold of mine while it was still hot. I wish they could figure out how to make energy from sound waves.

[gspig]

Believe it or not, someone is working on a 6 stroke engine that uses steam as the 5th and 6th stroke. It is a 4 cycle engine that injects water into the cylinder after the gasoline strokes.

[pancho]

Originally Posted by ace admirer

I think you will find that its worse that you think...about 80% of your engines energy is wasted.. most auto engines are only about 20% eff.

running engine hotter helps....alittle turbo chargers help....alittle. no venturis as in carburators help....alittle. running high compression ratios helped.....but with the quality of gas...thats history.

the long/short of it is that we need a new motive of transportation for light loads electric cars probably, for heavy loads we will need railroads,,,,electric probably,

i sometimes wonder if we could develope new forms of transportation with 300 or 600 billion we are spending to protect oil supplies and oil companies. lock and load.

I heard a short time back the scientist are working on a type of transportation that could mean the end of the auto for private transportation. It won't be available anytime soon though.

[Old Vet]

If you run a hot engine you can make just as much energy as you can use in a car thet is coing down the highway. Just hooked it up to a steam jenerator and make your own electricy then you willhave a traailer that may contain batters and you can use them when you get backl. The only thing is that if you run your engine hot enough to turn a steam jenerator it will not last but a shourt time. Also if you use a steam jenerator the adid weight you need a large engine to pull it and the trailer that you put batteries in. I know this is a Rube Golieberg idea but it will work. A much easier way is to get another generator and put it on the motor and charge the batteries.