BMW adds steam engine to 5 series to improve fuel efficiency

BMW is out to woo its fans again. The company has always made an effort to come up with the engines that rank high on the fuel efficiency graph. A large amount of precious fuel is wasted everyday, which may lead to its scarcity very soon. This time it has fitted a small-sized turbine in an archetype 5 series. This will convert heat wasted by the engine into electricity and pump up the miles per gallon by almost 10%.

BMW 5 series

The technology

BMW Efficient Dynamics has over the years come with engines like variable valve timing, auto start stop function, exhaust-driven turbochargers, direct fuel injection and brake energy regeneration. But, still 60% of the energy produced is still wasted or lost both in the form of exhaust heat and also because of the heat sucked up by the cooling system of the engine. The Turbo-steamer and Thermoelectric Generator or TEG projects work on swapping this waste heat in to electric current. Though the technology will take some time to hit the market but initial with the 5 series prototypes tests have yielded a positive result.

What’s new?

BMW has fitted a steam engine to its 5 series archetype that vows to make the ride all the more fuel efficient. New-age turbo-steamer is much smaller and simple. The small size will make sure that it can be used effortlessly in series production, while a simpler approach will pump up its dynamics and also pull off a desirable ratio of cost and benefit. This forced designers to come up with a component that just had one high temperature circuit. The system will have a weight of 10 to 15 kg and will bow down to all the electric needs. It will help save a minimum 5% fuel consumption on an everyday basis.

What’s refreshing?

The technology will increase the overall efficiency by saving a lot of fuel. The electric energy produced can be used for all the systems inside a car that run on electric energy rather than simply using the generator. This will also put a halt on useless escape of energy in the air by converting heat in to a useful form.

How it works?

Engineers coupled a thermoelectric generator with the exhaust system, which helped produce electrical energy. Over the years, this was given an overhaul for further improvements in terms of size and shape of TEGs by using new material. This made sure that the most up-to-date TEGs produced an electric power that measures a good 600 Watts. The energy recovery system will also provide additional warmth, when the temperature dips, to both the passengers and engines. Steam engines have an uncomplicated form and use heat to boil water and convert it into steam. BMW’s steam powered electric engine works on the same lines and makes good use of heat produced by exhaust gases to boil a fluid that is converted into steam and later used for the working of an electric engine.

The impact

The technology will have a great impact, which also includes reduced levels of CO2 emissions along with less consumption of fuel. Swapping waste heat into a more useful form like electric energy will definitely help save non-renewable sources. This will in turn have a positive impact on our beautiful environment as well.