Flybus project aims to cut fuel costs and emissions for new and existing buses
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The government-backed Technology Strategy Board is to help fund a new £1-million British-led 'green research' programme involving a flywheel-based mechanical hybrid Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) for fitment to buses and commercial vehicles.
The Flybus consortium will utilise Torotrak’s patented
Continuously Variable
Transmission (CVT) technology together with a high-speed composite flywheel
for
energy storage which has been developed by Ricardo UK, and which is known
as
‘Kinergy’. Both technologies have already undergone development
as part of a flywheelbased
mechanical hybrid KERS which has been designed for use in motorsport. The
innovative mechanical hybrid system will offer the commercial vehicle
sector an
unprecedented, low cost opportunity to drastically cut CO2 emissions and
deliver fuel
efficiency savings of 20 percent. With further optimisation, Torotrak
believes that there
are possibilities to significantly improve this.
The Technology Strategy Board is to provide £0.5-million for the
Flybus research
programme as part of its Low Carbon Vehicles initiative, with the
consortium partners
jointly matching this investment. The aim is to demonstrate a
flywheel-based mechanical
hybrid system in an Optare Eco Drive Solo bus and to confirm the benefits
of mechanical
hybrid systems, effectively KERS-based technology, for fitment as original
equipment in
new commercial vehicles and, significantly, also as a retrofit system for
updating existing
vehicles. The consortium plans to demonstrate the new low emissions, high
fuel
efficiency vehicle to bus companies, fleet operators and regulatory bodies
both in the UK
and beyond.
The successful development of a mechanical hybrid system suitable
for commercial
vehicle applications will provide UK industry with a significant
opportunity to manufacture
and sell 'green hardware' for both newly-built vehicles and existing bus
and truck fleets
across the world.
Whilst electric hybrid systems have already been developed for bus
applications and
have demonstrated useful fuel savings, such chemical battery-based
solutions add
considerable weight and complexity, lead to increased whole-life costs due
to regular
battery replacement and also raise associated environmental and disposal
issues. In
contrast, mechanical hybrids have been shown to offer up to twice the
efficiency of a
typical battery-based electric hybrid system in a package that is half the
size, half the
weight and a quarter of the cost.
The demonstration project will focus initially on installing an
existing Torotrak CVT and
Ricardo supplied flywheel in the Optare Solo bus, connecting the mechanical
hybrid
system directly to the Allison automatic transmission already fitted to the
vehicle as
standard equipment. The majority of the application, integration,
development and test
work will be undertaken by Torotrak in partnership with Ricardo, while
Optare and Allison
– providing, respectively, the test vehicle and an Allison 2000
Series transmission
hardware together with control integration support – will also offer
their series
manufacturing expertise.
Torotrak's Engineering Director, Roger Stone, says the main target
of the programme
will be to demonstrate significant fuel economy and CO2 improvements.
"Simulation
work by Torotrak, based on an Optare Solo bus and using the readily
available 60kW
system with 400kJ of energy storage capacity proposed for this first
demonstrator,
produced fuel savings of 20 percent over the official UK bus test
cycle,” explains Stone.
“In this initial project, the CVT and flywheel hybrid system will be
applied to the vehicle’s
driveline through the existing and previously unused Power Take-Off (PTO)
facility
incorporated within the standard Allison automatic transmission. Further
simulation
shows that an optimised system, using a 110kW system with 1MJ energy
storage
capacity, will produce further significant improvements in fuel savings
over the same test
cycle.
“Given the long service life of buses, the availability of a
simple hybrid system – one
which can be factory-fitted to new vehicles or retrofitted to an existing
vehicle to radically
reduce fuel costs and CO2 emission levels, at modest cost – will be
particularly
welcomed by bus companies, commercial vehicle fleet operators, Regional
Authorities
and the UK Government,” adds Stone.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
In 2008, 50,000 Allison automatic transmissions were sold into the
global bus market of
which over 14,000 were fitted to city buses.
With over 2.5-million medium and heavy commercial vehicles manufactured
worldwide
each year, the potential of the technology to make a significant
contribution to the
reduction of global CO2 emissions and fuel use across the bus and
commercial vehicle
sectors is considerable.
ABOUT TOROTRAK
Torotrak is the world’s foremost developer of full-toroidal
traction drive technology. The
company designs and develops Continuously Variable (CVT) and Infinitely
Variable
(IVT) transmissions which deliver outstanding levels of performance,
functionality and
refinement along with improved fuel economy and reduced emissions. Torotrak
develops
main drive transmissions as well as variable ratio transmissions for
application in
flywheel-based mechanical hybrid systems and for use as auxiliary drives.
Torotrak operates in the automotive, truck, bus, off-highway and
agricultural markets, in
motor sport and in outdoor power equipment. Its customers are equally
widely spread
across Europe, North America, India and Japan, and include major vehicle
makers and
tier one transmission manufacturers.
Torotrak plc is fully listed on the London Stock Exchange.
For more information about Torotrak, go to www.torotrak.com
ABOUT RICARDO:
Ricardo is a leading provider of innovative engineering solutions
and strategic consulting
to the world's automotive, transport and energy industries, combining
business, product
and process strategy with fundamental technical research and the
implementation of
large-scale new product development programmes. With a network of technical
centres
in the UK, North America, Germany, China, India, Japan and the Czech
Republic,
Ricardo serves a wide and balanced customer base in the automotive,
transport and
clean energy sectors.
For more information about Ricardo, go to www.ricardo.com
ABOUT OPTARE:
Optare plc is a leader in the UK bus and coach industry. The company
specialises in the
design, manufacture and supply of single and double-deck buses, coaches and
smaller
vehicles, and also offers a comprehensive after sales service.
For more information about Optare, please contact: Martin Hayes/David
Rowlands at
Automotive PR – 0207 494 8050 or go to www.optare.com
ABOUT ALLISON:
Allison, formerly a division of General Motors Corporation, was
acquired by affiliates of
The Carlyle Group and Onex Corporation in August, 2007. Founded in 1915,
the Allison
business is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A., and employs
approximately
2,900 people. It is the world leader in the design, manufacture and sale of
commercialduty
automatic transmissions, hybrid propulsion systems, and related parts and
services
for on-highway trucks and buses, off-highway equipment and military
vehicles. Allison
products are specified by over 250 of the world’s leading vehicle
manufacturers and are
used in many market sectors including bus, refuse, fire, construction,
distribution, mining,
energy, military and specialist applications. Regional headquarters with
dedicated
support staff are located in Brazil, The Netherlands, India, China, and
Japan. With a
global presence in 80 countries, Allison has over 1,500 distributor and
dealer locations
worldwide.
More information about Allison is available at
www.allisontransmission.com
ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY BOARD:
The Technology Strategy Board is a business-led executive
non-departmental public
body, established by the government. Its role is to promote and support
research into,
and development and exploitation of, technology and innovation for the
benefit of UK
business, in order to increase economic growth and improve the quality of
life. It is
sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). For
further
information please visit www.innovateuk.org