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Originally Posted by Graminal95
Currently the extra energy in the form of heat from the exhaust is being used to run a turbo (increased efficiency) and to catalyze the stuff not burn in the cylinder, so we can and are using the wasted energy to an extent.
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I'd much rather figure out a way to finish burning the unburnt fuel that we're having to catalyze away presently. Burning it in the cylinder where we can extract useful work would be best. I'm intrigued by hydrogen injection because the
credible sources seem to think it does just that.
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I wish there was a easy way to turn the left over heat/energy into chemical, electrical, or mechanical work (other then what has been stated above) that would greatly increase the efficiency of the engine. To my knowledge there are none yet, but with time comes innovations such as new catalysts and reaction paths that may turn these initial ideas into a viable reality.
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I ran across a technology that purported to do just that. Some sort of nano-modified material that achieved a couple of orders of magnitude better conversion than the thermoelectric materials available today. They explicitly suggested extracting useable energy from the waste heat in automotive exhaust, but that was probably more dreamy-eyed-scientisting it to attract news publicity and investors, than being realistic. I'll post the link this weekend if I kept it.