BMW's Turbosteamer

No, BMW isn't developing a German-engineered carpet cleaner, but rather a new technology that will no doubt giverenewed credence to the idea that the internal combustion engine is long from dead. Called Turbosteamer, the new systemactually uses principals derived from the steam engine to recycle hot exhaust gasses that would otherwise be wasted topower a drive assist system for the main motor.

The gist is this: 80 percent of the heat energy from exhaust gasses is used to heat fluid and form steam that is thenconducted directly into an expansion unit linked to the crankshaft of the engine. Yeah, OK, I didn't follow thateither, but the net result is a 15% increase in efficiency and a bump of 14 horsepower and 15 lb-ft of torque in BMW's1.8L four-cylinder engine.

Source: autoblog.comAdded: 23 December 2005