Small Chips to Turn Car Exhaust Heat into Electricity

Good news is coming from GMZ Energy. The company is trying to apply a green technology seeking to capture and exploit heat coming from car exhaust, to turn it into an unlimited source of electricity.

Their theory, once put into practice, would provide a win-win situation, both for the environment and for homeowners, who are always eager to test and adopt viable methods of reducing their energy bills.

Whenever they travel by car, car exhaust remains behind, with no further benefits. In most of the cases, 40% of energy is wasted in the form of heat. GMZ Energy is planning to change this path, by scaling up efforts to create a line of tiny chips, meant to gather all the heat and convert it into power.

Once fully tested, the company intends to launch it on the market. So far, the enterprise has managed to back another product with no less than $14 million (€10.8m), which collects and uses energy obtained from solar hot water collectors.

According to the developing company, 191 million American vehicles roll on the streets with 66% of their energy wasted as heat. Even though the project is still in its infancy, waste-to-heat recovery systems are considered an affordable method of reducing emissions, while benefiting from fuel efficiency gains.

Their new concept is based on thermoelectric material. Several other enterprises are struggling to improve its efficiency, while lowering production costs.
On the other hand, GMZ Energy is also aware of the fact that industrial facilities generate 36 TWh of waste process heat only in the US, on an annual basis.

Using their power generation, the company plans to exploit excess process heat, by turning it into 'high-value electricity.' However, converting car exhaust heat into affordable energy is not a new initiative and it is definitely not considered a utopia.

General Motors is one step ahead in this project, working in its research laboratories from Michigan to develop a waste-to-energy system that would improve fuel economy by up to 3%. Even if it looks great on paper, GM is still struggling to lower costs, since its prototype depends on rare metals and expensive technology.