Convert Car Exhaust Heat into Electricity

Purdue University researchers managed to utilize the exhaust heat in the car to be converted into electrical energy to the electricity needs of the car itself as well as save fuel consumption. Even this success has been getting grants $ 1,400,000, three years from the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy

Thermoelectric generator (TEGs) was created in collaboration with General Motors in a prototype. TEGs will work to generate electricity for charging car batteries including serving car electrical system. Thus the machine will be a light work that will affect the savings of fuel usage.

Prototype will be installed at the exhaust system of the car or behind the catalytic converter which in turn will use the exhaust heat energy from 700 degrees Celsius exhaust gases. A Purdue professor of mechanical engineering and electrical and computer engineering, Xianfan Xu, said that thermoelectric able to withstand the temperature inside the catalytic converter up to 1,000 degrees Celsius heat and has managed to conserve fuel to 5 percent. The thermoelectric prototype material called skutterudite is a mineral made of cobalt, arsenide, nickel or iron.