Effective generation of electrical energy from exhaust gases in automobiles

The world is developing at a faster pace, and so is the threat of pollution. With an impending energy crisis on the horizon and with our non-renewable fuel resources getting exhausted, there is an immediate need for discovering ways that can utilize waste heat and other available energy-forms for production of electricity. In order to satisfy the increasing energy-demands, there is a need to discover alternate energy sources, as non-renewable energy resources are getting depleted. An effective way to achieve this target is utilizing Waste Heat energy. The technologies that have been developed till today, are converting waste heat to thermal energy and then transforming it into electrical energy using conventional power plants. The primary objective is to explore the concept of TEG (Thermo electric generators) for utilizing waste heat to meet the power demands and for reducing the environmental heating effects due to automobiles. In the modern automobile systems, as much as 70% of the energy obtained from fuels is getting wasted as heat. Existing work validates the technical feasibility of converting heat energy carried by exhaust gases in automobiles to generate power equivalent to a 70 Amp-hr battery, utilizing thermoelectric generators which operate on the early 19
^th
century Seebeck principle. The method is based upon theoretical concepts and the present work improves the efficiency of the existing system by introducing simple structural changes in the system.