$8 million grant awarded to develop energy recovery system

(August 18, 2011) NORTHVILLE, Mich. (PRNewswire) — Amerigon Incorporated has announced 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.

Amerigon Incorporated is a global developer and marketer of thermal management technologies for a broad range of heating and cooling and temperature control applications,

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.

President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel R. Coker said that creating passenger car fuel efficiency has always been among Amerigon's goals in its far-reaching development of thermoelectric technology. Amerigon is best known for its Climate Control Seat System that uses thermoelectric technology to actively heat and cool seats in vehicles made by the world's leading automotive manufacturers.

"We believe our thermoelectric technology will demonstrate important advances in energy efficiency in passenger cars, which will also cut down on the emissions of harmful environmental pollutants such as carbon dioxide gas," Coker added.