Cars waste tremendous amounts of heat--which is, after all, a form of energy. Now a professor at Cardiff University has suggested a way to repurpose it so as to reduce emissions. Thermocouples, which are common devices in home hot-water heaters, use dissimilar metals or semiconductors to produce electricity from changes in temperatures. Professor Mike Rowe, who specializes in electrical and electronic engineering, has proposed that waste energy through a car's exhaust could be captured to reduce the electricity produced by a vehicle's alternator. In fact, thermocouples could even replace the alternator.
Alternators zap roughly 5% of an engine's power. Would this amount to a major savings in emissions? No. But as hybrids prove, it's the countless small ways that are making internal combustion engines greener.
Source: Ecogeek
