Imagine you making an effort and 70% of the energy getting wasted. That’s the plight of your engine which blows about 70 percent of the energy it creates straight out of the tailpipe in the form of heat. As Eric Mattessich realized the truth, he marched on the journey to make power plants more efficient to work on hybrid cars by adapting the kind of heat-recapturing mechanisms. Though not an absolute innovation, Eric’s design is certainly a better packaged one as the size has been worked upon.

The mechanism uses two turbine generators; in the first, the pressure of escaping exhaust spins the turbine to generate electricity. The second uses waste heat from the exhaust to turn water into steam; the steam powers the generator before traveling into a condenser, where it turns back into water and starts the loop again. Both turbines feed electricity back into the hybrid system’s batteries for a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions and a 20 percent more efficient vehicle.

In the pipeline, Mattessich is working on a prototype and applying for a patent. With this he is also looking for an automaker interested in testing by incorporating the system into new cars thereby realizing the efforts put-in in working on the noble cause.

Via inventorspot