Car exhaust heat can be a source of electricity

The efficiency of the internal combustion engine is not large and does not exceed forty percent. A large amount of heat energy literally goes into the pipe. However, scientists have come up with an environmentally friendly and reasonably affordable option to partially preserve it and guide it in a more useful direction.

The company from Germany Alphabet Energy has created a special substance based on natural thermoelectric tetrahedrites. This substance can produce electrical energy by means of temperature difference. Experts say that the physical principle has been known to scientists for a long time, but all efforts to implement it rested on the need to synthesize toxic and expensive materials. At the moment, they allegedly found a more harmless and affordable tool based on natural technologies.

It is also worth noting that the discovery of such a substance was mentioned in early 2013 – the creation of safe thermoelectrics was attributed to Donald Morelli, a professor at the University of Michigan. Whether he is affiliated with Alphabet Energy is unclear.

The material, which can convert heat into electrical energy, could open up a new energy niche for hybrid vehicles. For example, it can be made of special heat receivers that will generate electricity using a rapidly heating and also rapidly cooling exhaust system of the vehicle. However, the scope of data use by the material can be much wider - from the utilization of heat energy from power plants, to the generation of electricity from the heat of household heaters.

Source: ecofriendly.ru/