Advanced Diesel Electric Powertrain (ADEPT) project to show how 'intelligent electrification' can cut carbon and costs
Thu 05 September 2013
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Partners in a new initiative launched at Cenex's LCV 2013 aim to show how the 'intelligent electrification' concept developed in the successful predecessor Hyboost project can be used to demonstrate a high performance, low CO2 gasoline powertrain offering fuel economy benefits equivalent to a full hybrid - but at a projected cost premium of less than a diesel.
The HyBoost project partners Ricardo, Ford Motor Company, Control Power Technologies (CPT) and the European Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium will be joined by Faurecia Emissions Control Technologies UK Ltd and the University of Nottingham in the Advanced Diesel Electric Powertrain (ADEPT) project.
The partners aim to apply the intelligent electrification concept for the first time to a diesel vehicle (a Ford Focus). In doing so, they will explore the advantages that can be derived from the use of a 48V architecture, considered ideal for cost effective harvesting of kinetic energy, combined with synergistic electrical ancillaries and advanced thermal systems and waste heat recovery technologies.
The key technologies for ‘intelligent electrification’ of the powertrain (or ‘low voltage hybridisation’) include switched reluctance (SR) motor-generators, which eliminate the need for rare earth permanent magnets, and advanced lead-carbon capacitive batteries, which cut out the need for super-capacitors and expensive lithium ion batteries. Low voltage electrification reduces the need to store significant amounts of energy and, therefore, only a relatively small high power battery is needed. The development of SR motors for automotive application follows more than 10 years of intense R&D effort; the breakthrough lead-carbon batteries follow 20 years of similarly determined R&D.
Vehicle driveability and performance attributes will be optimized through effective application of a belt starter generator (BSG) capable of providing torque assist where required to augment engine performance. With this form of intelligent electrification, the partners in the project aim to demonstrate a powertrain with uncompromised performance and less than 70 g/km CO2 emissions as measured over the European Drive Cycle, but at a projected production significantly lower than a comparable full hybrid electric vehicle.
The project partners say that 48V hybridisation can provide excellent fuel economy and CO2 reduction, but at a quarter of the on-cost of a high voltage hybrid or pure EV. Potentially, this innovative low voltage approach could be applied to up to 50 million vehicles a year. The successful application of the technologies would allow a global vehicle manufacturer to cut its in-use carbon footprint of a typical vehicle by 50g/km – a 30 per cent reduction on today’s baseline.
Two of the project partners - ALABC and CPT - were winners of one of the LowCVP's Low Carbon Champions Awards for earlier work on technology which provides foundations for the ADEPT project.
The project, which is expected to take more than two years to complete, is supported by funding from the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, with balancing contributions from the project partners.
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