Volkswagen Ag

Hardy Naumann

Asmus Carstensen

Artur Semke

Stefan Paukner

Thomas Maischik

Thomas Schulenburg

Andreas Herr

André Horn

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.

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

An internal combustion engine having at least one combustion chamber, the internal combustion engine being connected via the exhaust thereof with an exhaust system. Disposed in the exhaust system is a heat exchanger of an exhaust heat recovery system, which can be used to transfer the waste heat of the exhaust gas to an operating fluid of the exhaust heat recovery system. Furthermore, the internal combustion engine is couplable to an air-conditioning compressor of an air-conditioning circuit. The exhaust heat recovery system has a further heat exchanger, in which the waste heat of a compressed refrigerant of the air-conditioning circuit is transferred to the operating fluid of the exhaust heat recovery system. A method for recovering the exhaust heat from such an internal combustion engine, an operating fluid of the exhaust heat recovery system being heated in a first method step by the waste heat of a compressed refrigerant of the air-conditioning circuit and, in a second method step, by the waste heat of the exhaust gas from the internal combustion engine.

Internal combustion engine having an exhaust heat recovery system as well as a method for recovering exhaust heat

A method for determining the temperature of an electrically heatable catalytic converter having an electric heating element that includes a heating resistor, the electrical resistance of which changes as a function of the component temperature of the electrically heatable catalytic converter. This resistance is determined from the current intensity and the voltage at the electrically heatable catalytic converter, and is used to determine the component temperature of the catalytic converter, based on a characteristic curve stored in the control unit. The energization of the heating resistor for determining the component temperature takes place in each case for only a short time in order to minimize the energy input into the heating resistor and thus avoid overheating of the heating resistor. In addition, by use of the short time interval, the aim is to minimize the energy requirements for determining the component temperature of the electrically heatable catalytic converter.

Method for determining the temperature of an electrically heatable catalytic converter

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Wolfsburg, Germany

Hardy Naumann