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Steam Hybrid Car from BMW
RMX writes "BMW is unveiling its turbosteamer hybrid engine, which uses the excess heat in the exhaust system and reclaims 80% of it by powering a steam engine that assists the gas engine. Overall, this gives a 15% more efficient engine; and significant additional performance (power and torque) with practically no downside. "This project resolves the apparent contradiction between consumption and emission reductions on one hand, and performance and agility on the other," commented Professor Burkhard Göschel. Are steam engines the future of environmental-friendly hybrid vehicles?"
...with practically no downside.
Additional moving parts, and servicability? How many modern garages know how to service a steam engine?
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Although the idea seems nice on the surface, how much more energy goes into refining the metal for the additional engine? How much weight is added? How much cost is added? Although many of these schemes seem beneficial, when evaluated over the lifespan of the product it may be a net zero or net loss from the existing technology. If people would stop buying new cars every two years, we would be better off than everyone buying the newest, latest greatest enviro-trendmobile constantly.
BMW has the ability to make Hydrogen-powered production cars, it is a shame that they have not caught on yet.
Current fuels will eventually go the way of the steam engine, or wait, maybe not the steam.
Interesting site: http://www.bmwworld.com/hydrogen/
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Quote from the company's press release about BMW's philosophy towards efficiency:
"A reduction in consumption amounting to a few percentage points over the entire model range exerts higher overall effects on the general population than high percentage points for a niche model."
Now the company just has to make BMWs available to the "general population"!
If I clone myself, can I call it a thread?
If a girl winks to us, can I call it a race condition?
I wonder if they will offer a steam whistle as an option to replace the car's horn.
It certainly would get the attention of the person in front of you preening themselves in their rearview mirror!
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
How many modern garages know how to service a steam engine?
I would think that BMW dealerships would be able to service BMW autos, no? Yes, I understand the rush to FP, but do you think maybe they'll have this covered by the time they go into production?
I am glad to see some innovation to the standard IC engine.
But I guess it's just easier to sit in your armchair and criticize real engineering...
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
... a network of metal tracks to operate them on.
Anybody want a peanut?
> The only thing hydrogen is good for is to reduce emissions from the
> vehicles themselves, but you only end up pushing the pollution to
> power generating stations, which we'll need a lot more of if the
> 'hydrogen economy' takes off.
Except that you're missing a critical piece here: since hydrogen extraction facilities are very large and stationary (something most cars are not), they can use fuels that would simply not be an option for the cars themselves, such as wind, solar, wave or nuclear power. And even if you do keep producing hydrogen by burning fossil fuels, because of the size and relatively low number of production facilities you have the economic luxury of investing in technologies that burn fossil fuels more efficiently and transform waste into more benign forms than would be feasible in the cars themselves.