GM awarded DOE money to research Shape Memory Alloy heat engines
General Motors has been awarded $2.7 million by the Department of Energy to create a working prototype engine using Shape Memory Alloys (SMA). The idea is for the prototype to use SMA tech to capture heat energy from engine exhaust gasses via an electric generator and transfer that energy to recharge batteries for hybrids or electric vehicles.
SMA tech can also theoretically power electronic devices like power seats and windows in a standard gas- or diesel-powered car, perhaps even replacing the power-sapping alternator. The GM press release, which is pasted after the jump, doesn't go into much depth explaining how memory alloys work, but the basic principle is easy to understand.
"When you heat up a stretched SMA wire, it shrinks back to its pre-stretched length, and when it cools back down it becomes less stiff and can revert to the original shape" said Jan Aase, director of GM's Vehicle Development Research Laboratory. "A loop of this wire could be used to drive an electric generator to charge a battery."
While $2.7 million isn't a lot of coin in the realm of GM finances (the General seemed to shed about $2.7 million every ten minutes pre-bankruptcy) the grant was significant in that it was the only monies awarded by the DoE given to an automaker. GM is working with partners from outside the auto industry to make the concept a reality, a practice that the General says is imperative to get breakthroughs like this to market. No timetable was given as to when GM's SMA concept would see the light of day.
[Source: GM]
PRESS RELEASE:
o Department of Energy Awards GM $2.7 Million Create Prototype with Partners
o Latest Example of Collaborative R&D Model to Speed Commercialization
WARREN, Mich. -- The day is coming when the heat from your car's engine exhaust is captured and converted to mechanical energy capable of powering your vehicle's stereo, power seats and air conditioning.
General Motors R&D received a $2.7 million federal award Monday that will help build a prototype using Shape Memory Alloy, or SMA, that would generate electricity from the heat in automotive exhaust.
"When you heat up a stretched SMA wire, it shrinks back to its pre-stretched length, and when it cools back down it becomes less stiff and can revert to the original shape" said Jan Aase, director of GM's Vehicle Development Research Laboratory. "A loop of this wire could be used to drive an electric generator to charge a battery."
It is too soon to identify a vehicle where this technology could work, but hybrid or conventionally powered vehicles are possible applications.
"No one else anywhere in the world is doing this work as far as we know," Aase said. "In a hybrid system, the electrical energy could be used to charge the battery. In a conventional engine, this could perhaps even replace the alternator without any load on the engine."
The award from the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Program Agency – Energy, or ARPA-E, was the only grant to an automaker among $151 million in distributed by the DOE. GM will work with HRL Laboratories; Dynalloy, Inc., a Tustin, CA manufacturer of shape memory alloys specially made to be used as actuators, and the Smart Materials Collaborative Research Lab at the University of Michigan.
"This award is significant for the gains in energy efficiency it could bring, and because it signifies how GM is doing business though collaboration and partnership," said Alan Taub, GM vice president of global R&D.
"The days are gone when we would do this kind of groundbreaking work on our own. We need to continue to find ways to combine our deep technical knowledge with others who can help take our ideas from concept to commercialization," he said.
The idea of an SMA heat engine "has been around for 30 years," Aase said, but the few devices that have been built were too large and too inefficient to make it worthwhile."
Even now, the technology is in the very early stages. Over the next two years, GM and its partners will work to create a working prototype.
"We're taking advantage of a network of people that we've been working with for a number of years on shape memory alloys," Aase said. "And we have some novel approaches to make this high-risk, high return project successful."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sheepszies 9:18AM (11/02/2009)
Didn't BMW already develop something like this?
Reply
StickShift 9:33AM (11/02/2009)
I think BMW was working on something similar, but it used waste exhaust heat to create steam that add power directly to the drive shaft. I imagine it could be used to generate for electricity for a hybrid too. Here's the original Autoblog article with more detail.
http://www.autoblog.com/2005/12/09/bmw-turbosteamer-gets-hot-and-goes/
Russell 10:34AM (11/02/2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVg7iSeJyw0
idk how gm is going to do it... but im sure 2.7 million can improve on this
JZeke 10:49AM (11/02/2009)
BMW does have a device more like this: a Thermoelectric Generator that makes electricity from waste heat.
Here's a AB Green article about it:
http://green.autoblog.com/2009/03/09/bmws-continued-efficient-dynamics-plan-to-include-thermoelectri/
Should improve economy by 5%, seems like worthwhile tech.
James 11:57AM (11/02/2009)
"When you heat up a stretched SMA wire, it shrinks back to its pre-stretched length, and when it cools back down it becomes less stiff and can revert to the original shape..."
One of the first/better known SMA types...Nitinol (Nickel Titanium Naval Ordnance Laboratory) "discovered" in 1962.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7jjqXh7bB4
Bayr 9:32AM (11/02/2009)
I ain't space craft engineer.... But you adding a small power(I doubt this generator will pull out more than 5 % increase in power) and a weight is gonna make no difference.... cause we all know if the vehicle is hevier thus it needs more fuel to move it ahead...
I am still thinking of lotus evora as somthiing everymanufacturer suppose to go to, but lotus is expensive and aren't the prettiest car in my opinion.....
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Rick C. 9:46AM (11/02/2009)
Exactly. When I first started reading it, it sounded like a RTG. Radioisotope thermoelectric generators are what deep space probes use to generate electricity for operation. Not exactly the Hoover Dam of power generation. Same concept.
RyanK 10:33AM (11/02/2009)
You must have missed the part where it said "power your stereo and heated seats". Of course this won't generate enough power to move your car. It's a way to recover a portion of the WASTED ENERGY to power auxiliary systems. The thing likely won't weight any more than your exhaust cat already does anyway.
This also falls into the 'basic research' category that may not pay off immediately but will lead to further research that could be rather useful in the future (ex: non-automotive applications such as capturing additional waste heat at power plants).
Thunderbuck 9:40AM (11/02/2009)
I've long believed that waste heat is a potential treasure-trove of energy, if only we could find some reasonable (ie, cheap and simple) way of tapping it. I'm pleased to see GM pursuing this.
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Carlos 10:26AM (11/02/2009)
It is but unless they can use some alloy that doesn't include titanium i don't for see this as being cost effective.
I'd rather see BMWs system come to fruition then an sma set up
BoxerFanatic 10:33AM (11/02/2009)
Oh....
Like some sort of turbine system or something...
Oh, wait.
That is already done. A turbocharger.
Gary 11:28AM (11/02/2009)
From the looks of it though, there is no change in the exhaust flow, so it means no exhaust restrictions, and no power being robbed unlike the application of catalytic converters and such.
Andrew 9:47AM (11/02/2009)
Damn I had that idea :(
I saw some video on youtube about SMA engines and thought "well why couldn't you put that in line with the exhaust system of a car? tons of lost heat there"
Should have capitalized on the idea :P
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Bob H. 9:52AM (11/02/2009)
Another way to subsidize Government Motors....
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Gary 11:25AM (11/02/2009)
Creative.
merlot066 10:22AM (11/02/2009)
Oh well Matt, I see GM has received yet ANOTHER bailout (or normal logic would suggest that it is a loan that will be paid back, like the one given to Ford, who happens to have reported a PROFITABLE 3RD QURARTER!!! Market share up 2.2% YEAHHHHHHH)
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merlot066 3:32PM (11/02/2009)
Just kidding guys, I was using Matt's logic, I guess nobody got it... so... nevermind.
why not the LS2LS7? 11:27AM (11/02/2009)
The comparisons to RTGs and BMW's system derived from steam engines is apt. But to me, this feels more like a Stirling engine. For decades, people have wanted to try to generate energy from (relatively) low-grade waste heat, and invariably they have to turn to a Stirling engine to try to do it. The only problem being that Stirling engines don't really work well enough.
This could be a great system if it works. You could put one on your clothes dryer too and recover some of that lost energy.
$2.7M seems pretty reasonable, I'm sure the DoE throws amounts similar to $2.7M at universities for research projects pretty frequently too.
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obliv222 1:09PM (11/02/2009)
Wait, so GM is getting another bailout?
Matt, LS7, please explain. I mean, didnt GM just say they didnt need any more government money? Whats with the additional bailout money?
why not the LS2LS7? 4:41PM (11/02/2009)
If you want to call it another bailout, you can. It's government money, plain and simple.
Personally, given that it's in line with the kind of money handed out for other research programs, I don't view it as a bailout any more than research grants to universities are bailouts to our schools.
It's not like this money is for day-to-day operations (like the billions given to GM last year and this) or for core business (like the DoE $5.9B loan to Ford), so I view it a little differently. But I cannot deny the facts which lead others to say it is otherwise.