Internal combustion will play a role in automotive propulsion far into the future, but not without help. At issue is the 25- to 30-percent energy loss that occurs when hot exhaust gases are dumped into the atmosphere.
Turbochargers successfully recycle some of that energy, but there are other recovery technologies carmakers haven’t tapped. One that’s especially promising is turbo compounding.
Like a turbocharger, the turbo-compound approach recovers waste-exhaust energy, but, instead of powering a compressor, the turbine wheel is connected to the crankshaft through a train of gears. Turbo compounding works with or without a conventional turbocharger upstream.
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