Consider how many people park a hot car when they get home and then go immediately cook food. The heat energy in the engine block is wasted as they burn more energy on the stovetop. So why not design engine blocks with a flat cast iron topside that can give a good heat transfer to a skillet or copper pot? If it would bring water to a near boil, that’s tea water, or perhaps a start on cooking.
I recall an Australian steak house that would bring a raw bloody steak to your table along with a flat lava rock so screaming hot that you could cook your own steak as completely as you want. So of course I’m thinking: why not transfer this idea to engine blocks? The lava rock is somehow fastened onto your engine block, and when you park you bring the hot rock into the kitchen for cooking heat.
Of course we must factor in the payload weight added to the car as it moves. So carrying the rock might be foolish in a cross-country trip but perhaps efficient on commutes exactly long enough to get recoverable heat energy. In the winter, the rock could be put into the air ducts of a forced-air heating system and add warmth to the house.
Could be rediculous ideas here… but I guess the job of thought_forge is to sort that out.
I know it was already studied to transfer ICE¹ heat to a steam engine to continuously convert (otherwise wasted) heat energy into more power to the drivetrain. Superficially it sounds brilliant, but apparently the complexity of the whole system was found to outweigh the benefits. I.e. many more things can go wrong with the car. But what if the steam engine does not directly complicate any essential car functions? Instead, it could generate power that charges the battery instead of the alternator. If it breaks down, it’s just the charging system. A switch simply puts the alternator back in the loop. Or it could mechanically power fans that blow heat into the cabin.
¹ internal combustion engine
Your particular idea is kinda silly because cars are usually outside, and they are dirty. But on an ideal world, no energy would be wasted in the home. The future home would have a central heat pump that would suck residual heat from the fridge compressor, as well as from the stove and oven after you turn them off. This heat would then be used to heat up water. The hot water drained from the shower could also be recaptured. Also, in the winter, the fridge “coldness” should just be coming from outside instead of using a compressor that produces lots of waste heat.
That’s what tinfoil is for. In fact it’s not unheard of for people using the engine block to cook food, or even the dashboard. It’s not too common and what you can cook is a little limited, but it’s not unheard of
And then what would happen with your invention-that’d-take-years-to-make-and-market once ICE cars get replaced by electric in 2 decades?
EV car buyers have a delusion that their old ICE car is removed from the planet. ICE cars are not being trashed upon replacement. They are shipped to Africa, where the avg. age of a car at the time of purchase is 21 years old.
Small aircrafts w/an ICE last forever because they are very well maintained (by law in fact). The cost of replacing an aircraft is also very high, so economic pressure also ensures a long life. The same would be true of ICE cars in your region if the economics of your region demanded it. Reguardless, unless you also plan to eliminate worldwide poverty in a couple decades, the ICE cars are not going away.
I think you may have shot yourself in the foot here; I had no idea of the African importing, and you didn’t provide any sources, so I looked it up and found: https://www.ilent.nl/binaries/ilt/documenten/leefomgeving-en-wonen/stoffen-en-producten/chemische-stoffen-en-mengsels/rapporten/used-vehicles-exported-to-africa/Used+vehicles+exported+to+Africa.pdf
It says:
Over 80% of the used vehicles currently exported to West African countries will soon no longer be acceptable due to stricter environmental regulations of the recipient countries in West Africa. They are too old and do not comply with the minimum emission standard of Euro 4/IV.
There you have it: eventually no more ICEs, based on your own data…
Planes’ longevity, while interesting, is ultimately fallacious from what I can tell, unless you have some sort of heat pump idea for them (which would probably be… much harder than implementing in a car, no?).
By the way, if it matters, I’m not against making things more efficient or reducing waste. I love the idea! It just seems like you would be better off applying this train of thought to EVs or something.
There have been countless ideas to make cars more efficient. But guess what? That doesn’t make oil billionaires more billions, so you’re not going to get much investment
Growing up, we would put precooked and seasoned Sloppy Joe meat in a tinfoil bag and place it on the boat engine, ski all morning, then have hot sloppy joes for lunch.
