Amerigon Awarded U.S. Department of Energy Grant to Develop Thermoelectric-Based Energy Recovery System to Improve Passenger Car Fuel Efficiency

Amerigon Incorporated ARGN today announced that it has been awarded an $8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to lead the development of an energy recovery system that can improve passenger car fuel efficiency by five percent by converting waste heat from gas exhaust into electric power using a thermoelectric generator. The grant is part of $175 million in DOE awards for 40 projects to accelerate advanced vehicle research and development. Amerigon will share the $8 million grant with its project partners including Ford, BMW of North America, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/California Institute of Technology, and Faurecia Emissions Controls Technologies. The project, to be completed in four years, will also specify how the new energy recovery system can be successfully commercialized "on the scale needed to positively impact the reduction of greenhouse gasses," according to the DOE grant.