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Only a part of the energy released from the fuel during combustion is converted to useful work in an engine. The remaining energy is wasted and the exhaust stream is a dominant source of the overall wasted energy. There is renewed interest in the conversion of this energy to increase the fuel efficiency of vehicles. There are several ways this can be accomplished. This work involves the utilization thermoelectric (TE) materials which have the capability to convert heat directly into electricity. A model was developed to study the feasibility of the concept. A Design of Experiment was performed to improve the design on the basis of higher power generation and less TE mass, backpressure, and response time. Results suggest that it is possible to construct a realistic device that can convert part of the wasted exhaust energy into electricity thereby improving the fuel economy of a gas-electric hybrid vehicle.

The use of nanotechnology to develop advanced heat-transfer materials is a rapidly growing topic of research at facilities around the world. One class of these materials, nanofluids, has shown promise in the laboratory to dramatically improve thermal conductivity. Quantification of the thermophysical properties of these fluids is important for optimizing the design of automotive powertrains and electrical subsystems in order to produce highly efficient and robust vehicle cooling. A new technique for measuring thermal conductivity, the Transient Planar Source (TPS) method, was used for the first time to investigate the thermal conductivity of automotive coolants and their equivalent nanofluid, as a function of temperature. The results of this study indicate that the TPS method allows for rapid and repeatable measurement of thermal conductivity with an error of between 2-4%. The technique also presents several advantages over other methods which we will briefly describe.