Seebeck effect could drastically reduce vehicles' CO₂ emissions
7 Jun 2016 by Evoluted New Media
A 200 year old discovery is to be used to save vehicles using huge amounts of fuel while lowering their annual carbon emissions by as much as 1,000 tonnes a year.
A 200 year old discovery is to be used to save vehicles using huge amounts of fuel while lowering their annual carbon emissions by as much as 1,000 tonnes a year.
Researchers from Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology, in conjunction with Scania, an automotive company, have been testing semi-trailer trucks with a system that converts exhaust heat into power using thermoelectric generation (TEG). The voltage that is produced can power the truck and reduce the stress on the engine.
Arash Risseh, a researcher at the university said: “Most fuel energy is not used to drive a truck forward. Some 30 percent of this unused energy is lost as heat from the exhaust pipes.” The capture of the unused energy also allows for better fuel efficiency.
A truck that generates 440 kilowatts would see more than 130kW disappear in the form of heat from the exhaust pipe, Risseh said.
The Seebeck effect, discovered in 1821, occurs when differences in temperature are converted into voltage. For this to happen on the truck a coolant is needed. If this system was to be used on a ship, then a natural coolant such as seawater could be used.
The use of TEG could be a potential energy saver for data centres in cold climates. There is a data centre in northern Sweden near the Arctic Circle that uses 1 Terawatt hour per year. Using TEG, they could recover 1 Gigawatt every year, a saving of more than £750,000.
The research project was funded by Eberspächer, TitanX, Swerea IVF and the Swedish Energy Agency.
