Introducing the Te-bike (Thermoelectric bike)
Fri, 05/08/2009 - 05:57
People all know that the most efficient way to store energy in the form of a liquid fuel but the best traction engines are electric, so why not build a vehicle with a fuel tank and a small burner that will heat to a battery of Peltier cells, generating electricity and feeding an electric motor system? What do you think?
the efficiency of a peltier/thermocouple device at turning heat into electricity is horrific.
its around 3%.
even the worst ICE are better than that (by many multiples)
thermocouples are only used in applications where there are larges amounts of heat available, and all other ways of generating electricity aren't practical (an RTG on a deep space probe named voyager comes to mind).
unless theres a leap forward in thermocouple/peltier device performance, id say its not a good idea.
Matt