EGEE 102
Energy Conservation for Environmental Protection

Heat Engines

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Energy conversions occurring in an automobile are illustrated below:

Line drawing showing chemical energy flowing to thermal energy flowing to mechanical energy
Energy Conversions in an Automobile
Credit: © Penn State is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Any device that converts thermal energy into mechanical energy—such as an automobile or a power plant—is called a heat engine. In these devices, high temperature heat (thermal energy) produced by burning a fuel is partly converted to mechanical energy to do work and the rest is rejected into the atmosphere, typically as a low temperature exhaust.

Heat Engine diagram showing that high temperature heat produced by burning fuel is converted into mechanical work and low temperature exhaust.
Heat Engine
Credit: © Penn State is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0