Turbo Alternator: How Can It Increase Vehicle Efficiency?

[bwilson4web]

I kind of overlooked your post at first, but yeah prius's have their alternator/motor wedged in between the engine and trans (not belt driven but it does take energy to spin it).

My question is how much force is required to spin the turbodrive alternator when it's at full output and how much backpressure will that create in the exhaust?

That is one of the reasons why this prototype is important.

Sad to say, it is difficult to find the performance specs for turbines. I did find mass-flow, efficiency charts for the turbo charger I'd bought several years ago but my best case estimate including injecting enough water for 20 kW is not even close to the graph (see earlier post.) I've sadly oversized the turbine by nearly half an order of magnitude. But I can still get useful data and use it for system integration and test.

I have found a motorcycle turbo that is more correctly sized for the gas flow of the 64 hp of my 2003 Prius but before I spend any more money, I want to make sure the system elements work well enough to trust exchanging the turbo. There are 'devils in the details' and I don't think I've figured them all out, yet.

BTW, the 250 W, back-pressure model is for a 2:1 pressure ratio of the turbine. It turns out whatever the actual pressure ratio of the real turbine, you can multiply it minus 1 times 250 W to estimate the back-pressure overhead. But then that is why we experiment.

Bob Wilson

 

[Gotanks0407]

Hey i was just letting you know I'm watching this and thinking something of the same thing as you guys are...but I'm doing it in a race car I'm building, I'm plan on doing it in a Dodge Charger, and want all parasitic loss of the drive train, currently using a supercharger, but to get the boost i want, i will need to switch to a turbo and it hit me today, that a turbo pulley/belt system like on the engine, using the OEM accessories and making something for them to mount to and run them in the same style but using a turbine to power all the accessories insead of making to motor do it. Just letting you know I'm watching, and hoping to hear good things. Might be trying this.

 

[HowlerMonkey]

"All this has happened before, and will happen again"

http://www.heat2power.net/en__benchmark.php

 

[DannoXYZ]

Bob Wilson, I think you're onto something. Rather than using existing parts and trying to cobble them together in series, you may want to make an alternator that's driven by the turbine section. So basically, you remove the compressor and replace it with the stator-assembly from an alternator. Replace the compressor-housing with the alternator rotor.

Due to the high velocities, you're going to get very high voltage AC output. A buck-regulator with induction-coil can be used to store the high-voltage and have it be returned slower as lower-voltage. Then rectify as necessary. Although the Prius uses 288v batteries, so this might actually be a match made in heaven.