Recovering Energy from Exhaust Heat in Hybrid Vehicle using Thermo-Electric Generator

A number of irreversible processes in the engine limit its capability to achieve a highly balanced efficiency. The rapid expansion of gases inside the cylinder produces high temperature differences, turbulent fluid motions and large heat transfers from the fluid to the piston crown and cylinder walls. These rapid successions of events happening in the cylinder create expanding exhaust gases with pressures that exceed the atmospheric level, and they must be released while the gases are still expanding to prepare the cylinder for the following processes. By doing so, the heated gases produced from the combustion process can be easily channelled through the exhaust valve and manifold. The large amount of energy from the stream of exhausted gases could potentially be used for waste heat energy recovery to generate power. Various methods to harness the waste heat to produce power effectively had ended up in vain. This paper proposes and implements a thermoelectric waste heat energy recovery system for internal combustion engine automobiles, including gasoline vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles. The key is to directly convert the surface heat energy from automotive waste heat to electrical energy using a thermoelectric generator (TEG), which is then regulated by a DC–DC Chuck converter to charge a battery using maximum power point tracking. Hence, the electrical power stored in the battery can be maximized. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system can work well under different working conditions, and is promising for automotive industry. With the advancement in 21st Century, there has been increase in usage of Oil and Gas leading to problems like Global Warming, climate change, shortage of crude oil, etc. Due to these reasons Automobile Companies have started doing research for making Hybrid Technology usable into the daily life. The Paper starts from brief history about Hybrid Technology and also some brief introduction on it. Paper will also discuss the technologies used in the making of Hybrid Cars such as "Hybrid Solar Vehicle", "Hybrid Electric Vehicle" and "Plug In hybrid electric vehicles". Our Paper is based on the explanation of such technologies, their function, drawback of this technology, efficiency of Hybrid Cars, Case studies on the present commercial hybrid cars such as Toyota Prius series, Astro lab etc. and the fuels and raw materials used in the Hybrid Cars. Paper concludes on the advantages and disadvantages of Hybrid Cars and how this technology will take over the world in future and would become the alternative for Petrol and Diesel Cars.