A turbosteamer is a

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

combined cycle engine using a

waste heat recovery unit A waste heat recovery unit (WHRU) is an energy recovery heat exchanger that transfers heat from process outputs at high temperature to another part of the process for some purpose, usually increased efficiency. The WHRU is a tool involved in cog ...

Waste heat Waste heat is heat that is produced by a machine, or other process that uses energy, as a byproduct of doing work. All such processes give off some waste heat as a fundamental result of the laws of thermodynamics. Waste heat has lower utility ...

energy from the

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal comb ...

is used to generate steam for a

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

which creates supplemental power for the vehicle. The turbosteamer device is affixed to the

exhaust Exhaust, exhaustive, or exhaustion may refer to: Law * Exhaustion of intellectual property rights, limits to intellectual property rights in patent and copyright law ** Exhaustion doctrine, in patent law ** Exhaustion doctrine under U.S. law, i ...

and cooling system. It salvages the heat wasted in the exhaust and radiator (as much as 80% of heat energy) and uses a steam piston or turbine to relay that power to the crankshaft. The steam circuit produces and of torque at peak (for a 1.8

straight-4 A straight-four engine (also referred to as an inline-four engine) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout ( ...

engine), yielding an estimated 15% gain in

fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency (or fuel economy) is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical energy, chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or Mechanical work, w ...

. Unlike gasoline-electric hybrids, these gains increase at higher, steadier speeds.BMW TurboSteamer
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Timescale

BMW has been the pioneer of this concept as early as 2000 under the direction of Dr. Raymond Freymann, and while they were designing this system to fit to most current BMW models, the technology didn't reach production.

Publications

* R. Freymann, W. Strobl, A. Obieglo: The Turbosteamer: A System Introducing the Principle of Cogeneration in Automotive Applications. Motortechnische Zeitschrift, MTZ 05/2008 Jahrgang 69, pp.404-412.

References

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External links

Gizmag article discussing BMW's turbosteamerArticle on BMW's alternative Combined Cycle Hybrid technology
BMW Group. Retrieved 5 December 2011. Engine technology Steam power

Timescale

See also

Publications

References

External links