Drive unit for a motor vehicle having a combined arrangement of a cyclic process device and a thermoelectric generator

US11085347B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• VOLKSWAGEN AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT · DE

Inventors

• Hardy Naumann · Wolfsburg, DE
• Asmus Carstensen · Osloß, DE
• Artur Semke · Wolfsburg, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 10, 2020
• Grant date: Aug 10, 2021
• Expiry date: Feb 10, 2040

Classification

• Technology area (CPC F): Mechanical Engineering; Lighting; Heating
• CPC primary: F01P2003/001
• WIPO field: Engines, pumps, turbines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A drive unit for a motor vehicle that includes an internal combustion engine, which has a combustion engine and an exhaust gas line, via which exhaust gas can be removed from the combustion engine. A cyclic process device is provided for converting the thermal energy of the exhaust gas into mechanical work in a thermodynamic cyclic process, wherein a working medium with respect to its direction of flow flows through a first heat exchange device, in which a heat transfer from the exhaust gas to the working medium takes place, then flows through an expansion device, in which an expansion of the working medium and thereby the generation of the mechanical work take place, and then flows through a second heat exchange device, in which a heat transfer from the working medium to a cooling medium takes place.