Increasing efficiency - converting heat?
Ok,
I've been pondering the fact that cars waste a huge amount of energy through heat of exhaust and the engines radiant heat. I was thinking, and wouldn't it be very usefull to try to convert this heat into more usefull energy? I've heard some numbers stated, where the loss is around 30% of the total energy stored in gas.
I was wondering if a heat conversion device like a steam engine could utilize some of this wasted heat. Perhaps convert exhaust heat to energy to run a fan for the radiator? It just seems like so much is wasted...
Does anyone have any experience with steam or other methods of converting heat to usefull energy? It seems this might be a usefull modification to high performance engines that burn through alot of gas.
|