The students of VSSUT Burla have invented a ‘thermal energy recuperation system’ (TERS) for automobiles which will be helpful in increasing the fuel efficiency of the vehicles.
“In the first phase, it is successfully fitted in two wheelers,” informed Snehasis Mund, a fourth year Mechanical Engineering student of VSSUT-cum -the team leader of the venture.
The system can generate electricity from the heat which is expelled to atmosphere in the form of exhaust gas in automobiles. “We have tested our invention in a two- wheeler as a proof of concept. The fuel efficiency of the two- wheeler is getting increased by using this system,” Mund and his associates said.
“We are planning to implement this system in trucks and other big vehicles where we can produce around one kilowatt of electricity.
Further, we have run 100s of simulations in computer and are confident about its successful implementation,” said Tikeshwar Dora, Kanwaljeet Mohanty, Shubham Tiwari and Mukesh Patro, the other members of the team TERS.
If implemented in trucks, then it can reduce around 20 tons of carbon production by a single truck in a year. At the same time, fuel efficiency of the trucks will increase by 7 per cent, Mund, and all others claimed. “We got this idea while working on a formula race car,” they said further.
Mund has presented this concept to L&T Technology and Services (an Engineering R and D branch of L&T Group) and has got a job in that company for such unique invention.
Mund and his team have got a patent for this product and are looking for investors for its implementation in the market, so that it could be helpful in many ways including reduction of carbon production.