Patent ID: 8881522

Claim:
A method for operating a combustion engine comprising: at least one exhaust manifold comprising: an exhaust channel for conducting exhaust gas having an inlet side configured for connection to the combustion engine and an outlet side, at least one coolant channel for conducting coolant, which is arranged on the outside of the exhaust channel and configured for connection to a cooling circuit, at least one thermoelectric converter which is coupled on the one hand to the exhaust channel and on the other hand to the coolant channel in a heat-transferring manner; and at least one exhaust system connected to the exhaust manifold; wherein each of the at least one coolant channel is connected to a cooling circuit; and wherein the cooling circuit is a cooling circuit of the combustion engine for cooling an engine block, or wherein the cooling circuit is a cooling circuit that can be controlled separately from the cooling circuit of the combustion engine; the method comprising: operating each of the at least one thermoelectric converter to generate electric energy during a hot operation of the combustion engine; and operating each of the at least one thermoelectric converter to generate heat during a cold start operation of the combustion engine.