Toyota Atkinson cycle engine versions in Hybrid Synergy Drive HSD systems of superlative reliable vehicles like Prius for 5 generations since 1997 in Japan. 1NZ-FXE 1.5L in 04-09 Prius II for example in some models achieving odometer records of 850,000 miles in second Gen. Prius Taxi cars, then Guru automotive in Seattle rebuilds them for a reasonable price & they keep going, new hybrid battery, rebuilt motor, there are some refurbished second gen Prius with other a million miles odometer!
Reducing pumping losses by leaving the intake valve open longer, effectively more fuel energy in the power stroke can be extracted, accomplished with variable valve control, variable timing & ignition, ECU modes optimized for fuel efficiency such that Toyota 1NZ-FXE or 2ZR-FXE 38% 40% or 42% efficiency in terms of converting the fuels energy into torque to move the vehicle, & those numbers are considered exceptionally efficient in the automotive world where other automaker engines are only 20-30% efficient.
One way or the other that means a lot of the fuels energy leaving the engine as waste heat through the radiator, & moreover in hot exhaust gas, gas so hot if it is piped into a turbocharger the hot side of the turbo glows red hot iron, while even naturally aspirated cars have a red hot catalytic converter where the hot exhaust gas hits a alumina ceramic honeycomb slurry coated in platinum, palladium & rhodium dust, such that as that noble metal catalytic core glows red hot the toxic exhaust gases & goo & fumes hitting it are catalytically decomposed into safe gases like oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, reducing exhaust pollution emissions by 95% using upstream & downstream O2 exhaust gas temperature sensors, fuel injection, ECU map control, & other EGR, CVR, fuel tank vapor capture, air injection, & many other clever emissions control technologies.
What if there were a cheap easy way to extract useful electricity from that hot exhaust gas? One way with a turboalternator or turbogenerator integrated into the exhaust header of the engine. When hot pressurized exhaust gas goes through this turbine, it spins the turbine at over 100,000 RPM, which turns the shaft input to the magneto, alternator, or power generator making electrical power at thousands of watts send to recharge the traction battery in PHEV & HEV vehicles.
Scientists' zealots not considering feasibility keep investigate TEG or thermoelectric generators, but these are costly per watt, & can only make 40 watts of energy in a practical automotive version, barely enough to run the headlights of a modern bright LED vehicle forward illumination system.
To make 1000 watts the entire engine exhaust header would have to be covered in hundreds of sparkplug shaped TEG's wired together, each with fan cooled cooling fin heatsinks on the cold side. RTG using hot plutonium rods as the heat source, with a tube consisting of hundreds of TEG surrounding the hot plutonium core, aluminum fins on the outside of the TEG cylinder array are the cold side, but these cost millions of dollars.
An automotive header with hundreds of long lasting TEG's even if mass produced would cost many tens of thousands of dollars, vastly more than feasible energy recovery with a generator motor attached to an exhaust gas turbine which can easily generate 2000-7000 watts of electricity at 14.2 volts, or it can be tuned for 400 volts or 800 volts to direct DC charge larger hybrid traction batteries or PHEV battery packs.
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