Latest news – Dr. Klaus Draeger, BMW’s Head of Development, announced today that BMW is working on a futuristic technology that will allow them to save more fuel and lower the carbon emissions. The technology is called “thermoelectric generator” and it’s in fact a radioactive heat-collector used to power space satellites.
How does it work?
The radioactive material within the generator will produce electricity under higher temperatures. It is built around the car’s exhaust and it uses the heat dissipate by the exhaust in order to produce electricity.
What are the fuel savings?
BMW predicts a fuel saving of about five percent now, due to the energy generated by the engine and eliminated through the exhaust system. Five percent might not seem a lot to many people, but when compared to the three percent fuel savings achieved by the “hyped” EfficientDynamics technology, it sounds more appealing.
When will it be available?
Dr. Draeger expects the thermoelectric generator to be available in five years, this basically will be implemented in some models coming out sometimes in 2015.
On a different note, Autocar UK mentions the Project i as being under way, expected to hit the road around the same time as the radioactive heat-collector technology. They also confirm what we knew already, no design language or direction has been chosen yet, and the Project i final version is still up for debate.
Will it be the return to roots three-wheeled BMW or a regular smaller city car, along the same route as the MINI E.
[Source: Autocar UK]
7 Responses to “BMW will use a radioactive heat-collector to save fuel”
Leave a Reply
Preview: 2010 BMW 5-series revealed
2012 BMW 3-series
BMW M-Zero concept
Renderings: 2012 BMW M6
Renderings: 2012 BMW 3 Series
- Black740: WOW ! She looks amazing. Love those wheels and that colour combo. Very Nice ! .
- Betsy: Hello Bird. We ordered our 2009 BMW X3 directly from the factory in April 2009 and picked it up from the...
- viper: for me nowdays ,the 5gt is a step back , they should have built it 4 years ago when Mb presented R class , I...
- Jordan: i totally agree Giom! … it’s fantastic! the black and silver combo they have is just perfect....
- Jordan: yes that A7 does look very nice. it’s one of the nicest looking audis i think because of the very clean...
Featured Stories
-
- BMW 1-Series
- From 18/28 mpg | MSRP from $29,400
-
- BMW 3-Series
- From 18/28 mpg | MSRP from $33,600
-
- BMW 5-Series
- From 18/28 mpg | MSRP from $45,800
BMW
See more BMW Models
BMW M3 | BMW X6 | BMW 1 Series | BMW | BMW 7 Series | BMW 135i | BMW 5 Series GT
Copyright © 2009 BMWBLOG.com. All rights reserved.
Our blog is proudly powered by Downtownhost, a leader in hosting services
BMWBLOG is an independent enthusiast blog and it is in NO WAY owned, affiliated with or endorsed by BMW AG or BMW North America. BMW is a registered trademark of BMW AG. Privacy Policy
designed by WP-design
I like how BMW are doing everything but going hybrid to reduce emissions.
@Gord: F01 7 series and X6 active hybrids will be unveiled this year in production form, so it’s on its way.
Any more information on what material this is?
The normal device for this purpose would be a peltier junction, which isn’t radioactive. There was a theoretical device proposed a few years ago that could directly generate electricity from heat (as opposed to a heat differential), but nobody had any idea how to create one to test.
Doug, there’s no such thing as “heat” without a temperature differential.
“In physics and thermodynamics, heat (symbolized by Q) is any transfer of energy from one body or system to another due to a difference in temperature”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat
Horatiu, please read this and then edit
There is no nuclear holocaust..
http://www.autoevolution.com/news/radioactive-bimmers-from-hell-4775.html
@Bogdan,
“deep space probes often do use radioactive materials to generate electricity, being that they are too far away from the sun to use solar panels. They just use the heat generated by the decaying radioactive materials to drive a thermoelectric generator… the same sort of generator that BMW plans to use. But BMW will just use waste heat from the exhaust instead of heat from decaying radioactive material.”
The truth is somewhere in the middle..
Dear Horatio,
Your blog is interesting and correct in that thermoelectric and thermionic converters are used to generate electricity from a given heat source (providing that there is a useful temperature gradient) including waste heat from a radioactive source. However, it is unlikely, at the present time, that radioactive heat sources will enjoy widespread terrestrial use, partially because they are very very expensive, and partially because of health and security concerns. The generation of electricity using thermoelectrics and thermionics is a very active academic field with thermocouples being placed at about the bottom of the barrel in terms of efficiency. So the BMW device looks to be purely cosmetic rather than breakthrough ‘green’ science.
with kind regards,
Andy