Heat Rave R

In a recent SEMA article I read, these Brits are developing a simple but ingenious concept:

"SEMA eNews, Vol. 8, No. 50 – December 21, 2005

MORE POWER! HOW HARNESSING EXHAUST GASES CAN INCREASE PERFORMANCE

British engineers have been working on ways to harness engine exhaust gases to supply an extra power source for vehicles. They have developed a way to recover significant amounts of energy that would normally be lost via engine exhausts.

The Turbo-generator Integrated Gas Energy Recovery System, or TIGERS, project is run by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Foresight Vehicle research initiative. The group is made up of researchers from Visteon UK, Switched Reluctance Drives of Harrogate, and the University of Sheffield Electrical machines and drives research group.

The system currently being developed has the potential to reduce fuel consumption by up to 10%. A switched reluctance generator is installed in a by-pass waste pipe, which is fitted just below the engine exhaust manifold. A valve linked to the engine’s management control system allows some of the high-energy gases to pass through a turbine to drive the generator. The switched reluctance generator gives the TIGERS device a power density of approximately three times that of a typical alternator.

The research group believes that the “free” electricity created could drive all of a car’s heating, lighting, air conditioning, and in-car entertainment systems. It is possible that the cam belt, drive belts and alternator could be replaced by the TIGERS-recovered power providing electrical drive instead. Additional electrical energy could potentially power electro-magnetic valve actuation, electric intake charge cooling, electric-powered super charging, or electrical exhaust after treatment. Engines would be more efficient without the belt friction. The TIGERS system could even be used in a hybrid electric car to feed extra power directly to the drive motors or back to the battery to increase vehicle range.

The TIGERS could potentially result in lower fuel consumption, greater efficiency and an overall reduction in greenhouse gases. Researchers are hopeful that the system could be fully developed for car, van, bus and truck engines within a few years.

Source: William Kimberley, “Tapping into exhaust power”, Automotive Engineer, Vol. 30, No. 9."

jfairladyz

Huh. That's pretty trick. The only thing that concerns me about that concept is the heat. I don't know that an exhaust driven alternator would last too long with all that extra heat. Heat in wires cause resistance which isn't good. But then again, since the system is designed specifically to work off of exhaust gas then they probably already thought of that and have figured something out. Still pretty cool though.

duowing

I'm all for the idea of less drive belts.

s/cL3.0

Damn why didnt I think of that.. Works for a turbo..

hoov100

sounds like a race to me, also sounds like i need to get off my **** and start giving away schematics for these types of things.

snwbrderphat540

sounds like extra backpressure, still better than belt driven, but i wonder how already turbo cars would take to that, it would be like having the sequential turbo brought back, and we all know how well every one enjoyed those...single turbo conversions all around. yet still a pretty ingenious idea. i wonder how well and efficient that will actually work out?

lww

With regard to turbo's, I'd run the 'exhaust driven alternator' off the compressor side of the turbo rather than the impeller side...

This would put positive pressure on the 'alternator' without significant increase in exhaust back pressure. Of course, you would loose some of your boost charge, but you could make up for that by going to a BIGGER turbo! WooHoo!

s/cL3.0

Well with an altenator.. hell even a turbo you can put it anywhere on the exhaust track.. So a turbo in the engine bay and then a altenator after the cat with wires going back to where it needs to go..

Dorifto

If my alternator belt squeals every time my system hits bass, I don't want to know what would happen when it plugs my exhaust by not spinning ...

007max

This is a really interesting idea... come to think of it all that wasted energy in exhaust gas could be put to good use producing power... like maybe using it to compress the intake charge... which would produce much bigger gains than removing the drive belts for the alternator... no.. no, that would never work

duowing

Guys, why is my charging system not working? Why is my car moving so much slower? Time for a new $300 exhaust driven alternator setup! There would obviously be alternatives as well as negatives to this. On a car based more on performance, I'd prolly rather stick with the belt driven alternator, but for normal every day drivers who don't strive for acceleration numbers, etc. It would be fine.

hoov100

if we are going to put one on the exhaust why not just put a prop on the front of the car and have a shaft connected to that wich drives you alternator?

snwbrderphat540

cause it would look stupid....duh. lol

FubarI33t

hell, if you really want to throw in a few Alternitive Alternator idea's. you can connect a gear or two to your CV shaft's, and drive a alternator there also.

RodMoyes

But, if you did that... It would only charge when the car is ROLLING rather than whenever the motor is running.... Bad traffic jam, headlights on, radio on, windsheild wipers on = dead battery really quick. Otherwise good idea though

Rod.

jfairladyz

How about an alternator that not not only drives itself but also charges itself. An electric motor that gets its initial charge from the battery get the alternator going. While the alternator is spinning it would supply electricity to the components as well as charge the battery. I'm sure it's already been tried. Would like to know how it turned out though.

FubarI33t

that would be a form of PerPetual Motion(that was spelled wrong, i think) I am working on something like that my self, but on a smaller scale.

hoov100

the trick with perpetual motion is to have the generator put out more amps then the motor driving it, i won 2nd place in the district science fair for one of those. made it run by itself for 3hours before the generator cought fire.

FubarI33t

lol. I am workin on a 3 gen to one motor belt drive system. one gen would power motor, other two power what it need's too. Along with step up, and step down transformer's. switchs, a circet board ro two. and you'll have a nice lil power plant. start small. then maker bigger one's. Only problem with perpetual motion is Fritcion. it's not a very nice thing in this case

hoov100

thats why you go with a higher power genrerator.

jmmorriso

Ive seen circle track cars with driveshaft driven alternators, the only problems ive seen are lots of idling kills the battery, (thx Rod) and the one guy who ran one at our track was too dumb to put his car on stands aftery every race and check it out and he lost the drive belt in qualifying and didnt know it until the car died in the middle of the main event, in which he was 2nd.

FubarI33t

well, if your gen put's out to much amp's. then it will fail. eather right off, or over time. Like your's. if power is monitord, regulated, and used right accourding to amp usage, resitance lost, relay power usage, circut board power usage, and Misc power usage. then it can run forever, untill something fail's, or it's shut down. the trick is balinceing everything perfect. that's what makes it so hard to do. The system I will be building shortly will contain controled gear's. whe it needs more power a higher gear will be used, less poer, lower gear. Kind of the same as a car. that way the motor will alway's use the same amount of power at hight of gear. one gen can run at 300 RPM, another at 250RPM, and the thrid at 400RPM. they will run at what power demand is. that will reduce failure in gen and over strain on motor. All of witch can be controld by a computer Via a simple program made to control relay's Via LPT1 port(printer port) If all is done right, a working power plant can be created. It's just the size of such power plant, Say it would produce enough power to power 1 Computer on 250 Watt PSU, and one montior. The unit produceing this power would be the size of a go kart(includeing roll bar's) The Size to power output discurages ppl to experament with such alternitive power option's.

hoov100

as for the friction i used rc car bearings in all moving parts and used a light weight belt. also keep a good eye on the amp output.

jfairladyz

Nerds

I'm just playing. So why haven't we seen this hit the main stream yet? I can understand how the funds and equipment accessible by your average science fair participant arent going to be too great. But on the budget of a major auto maker you'd think they'd have the resources to make this happen. I mean we basically see a form of this in the brake charging seen in some of the electric cars that charge their batteries while coasting or braking. Overall it's a flawed design, but it's better than nothing I suppose. But making a self sustaining alt/gen (well, with the assistance of a battery of course) seems practical enough to me. And in doing so, we could build electric cars that could sustain themselves indefinitely and gas powered cars that could benefit from the freed up power. I guess that explains it though doesn't it? The weight of a device such as this probably outweighs (no pun intended) the benefits of freeing up the few horsepower gained by not having to drive the alt. with the engine. Guess I answered my own question huh

FubarI33t

i a way you did, But a stasionary power plant coud be built. The size of witch would be huge, but buildable. No one wishes to fund such old tech. they all want to look into New thing's. Such ideas like this were tryed back in the day when stuff was not as eficent, now that more eficent tech is out, i think older ideas should be researched and tryed again. You never know unless you try.