Patent ID: 7810329

Claim:
A method for operating an internal combustion engine having: a cylinder block, an air path for intake air, a mechanically driven supercharger installed in the intake air path, a connection between a crankshaft and the mechanically driven supercharger being selectively produced and broken by a coupling, which depends upon operating states of the internal combustion engine, an exhaust gas turbocharger, an intake pipe connected with air intakes of the cylinder block, and a charge cooler, the mechanically driven supercharger having a pressure outlet directly connected to the intake pipe, the exhaust gas turbocharger having a pressure outlet connected to a suction intake of the mechanically driven supercharger, wherein the pressure outlet of the exhaust gas turbocharger is connected to the suction intake of the mechanically driven supercharger via an on-off butterfly valve and to the intake pipe via a load control butterfly valve which is arranged upstream of the on-off butterfly valve, wherein the charge cooler is integrated in the intake pipe to form an intake charge cooler module, the method comprising the steps of: bringing the on-off butterfly valve into a completely closed position, deactivating the mechanically driven supercharger, and controlling the load by at least one of operating the load control butterfly valve and adjusting and turbocharger in the operating states of the internal combustion engine in which an instantaneous torque demand being produced by the exhaust gas turbocharger; and bringing the on-off butterfly valve into a completely open position, activating the mechanically driven supercharger, and closing the load control butterfly valve to an extent necessary to reach torque demand in the operating states of the internal combustion engine in which the instantaneous torque demand exceeds a maximum torque being produced by the exhaust gas turbocharger.