Team at Purdue University working on high-temp generators to suck power from car exhaust

[img]http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/11/teg-2010-11-24-250.jpg
[/img]You know all that gas spitting out the exhaust of your car? Not
only is it full of carbon monoxide and other things you shouldn't
breathe, it's also full of heat. Heat is wasted energy, and students
at Purdue University, led by mechanical engineering professor Xianfan
Xu, are working to capture it. With some funding from General Motors
the team is working to create better thermoelectric generators, or
TEGs, that work at much higher temperatures than those we've seen
before. A current Purdue prototype works at 700C, or 1,300F, which
could be found behind a car's catalytic converter and generate enough
electricity to reduce fuel consumption by around five percent. Future
versions would work at higher temperatures and offer better results.
Last year BMW indicated it is working on similar tech with deployments
coming as early as 2014, and so now the race begins, though the
culmination of their efforts will surely look something like this.