Volkswagen Ag

Jörg Fritzsche

Asmus Carstensen

Artur Semke

Thomas Schulenburg

Andreas Herr

Christoph Käppner

Marcus Dallmann

Jörg Volkmann

Thomas Maischik

Jens Hampe

A drive unit for a motor vehicle that has a combustion machine having an internal combustion engine () as well as an exhaust gas system via which exhaust gas can be discharged from the internal combustion engine (), and has a cyclic device that can be used to convert the thermal energy contained in the exhaust gas into mechanical work in a clockwise thermodynamic cycle, whereby the cycle comprises a heat transfer from the exhaust gas to a working medium in a first heat exchange device, as a result of which the temperature and/or the pressure of the working medium is increased, comprises an expansion of the working medium in an expansion device () for generating the mechanical work, and comprises a heat transfer from the working medium to a cooling medium in a second heat exchange device. The drive unit is refined in that the first heat exchange device comprises a first heat exchanger () and a second heat exchanger () as well as an intermediate circuit () containing a transfer medium, whereby in the first heat exchanger (), thermal energy is transferred from the exhaust gas to the transfer medium, and in the second heat exchanger (), thermal energy is transferred from the transfer medium to the working medium.

Drive unit for a motor vehicle

A heat exchange device having a first media channel for a first medium and a second media channel for a second medium is further refined in that, in at least one section of the heat exchange device, a third media channel for a transfer medium is arranged between the first media channel and the second media channel, so that the heat transfer from the first medium to the second medium takes place via the transfer medium.

Heat exchange device and drive unit for a motor vehicle

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Wolfsburg, Germany

Jörg Fritzsche