BMW has won an ÖkoGlobe award for the second straight year. The award was presented to the Bavarian automaker for its work on a thermoelectric generator. Um, what's that? Basically, using a process known as the Seebeck effect, electricity can be generated by a difference in temperatures. All right, fine... who cares? Under the hood of every car ever sold that has an internal combustion engine, a huge amount of heat is generated while the engine creates power to drive the vehicle. In fact, only about a quarter of all the energy released by the fuel's combustion is utilized in even the most efficient engines. Therefore, there is a great source of untapped energy already in each car on the road. BMW's researchers and engineers would love to tap into that unused energy with a thermoelectric generator, which could help capture some of that potential energy in the form of electricity that could then help power either the car directly or at least some of its peripheral systems. Very cool, and we hope something good comes from the research.
[Source: BMW]
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