Hybrid heating

A system that uses waste heat from the batteries of hybrid and electric vehicles to power a car’s climate control system is under development by a UK project team.

Zytek Electric Vehicles hopes to introduce a heat exchanger that can keep the car’s cabin warm in winter and cool in summer.

The batteries of hybrid and electric vehicles are good sources of energy because they warm up to between 270º and 340º when the chemical reaction takes place. Zytek’s vehicles use nickel and sodium chloride batteries.

The reaction that converts the two chemicals into sodium and nickel chloride could produce enough waste heat to power a climate-control system, it is believed.

The Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) will develop the heat exchanger on behalf of Zytek. Zytek believes that the heat exchanger could operate a climatecontrol system while the battery is being charged without consuming any extra power. T

he company’s project manager, Ian Harrop, said: ‘While it’s recharging, there’s a certain amount of battery that could be used to keep the cabin warm. With air conditioning, there’s a significant amount of power required, but there’s less power required if you want to keep it at a specific temperature.’