Ultracapacitor kinetic energy recovery systems in road transport vehicles. is it a viable retrofit option for reducing fuel consumption and co2 emissions?

Abstract

With the cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg being signatories to the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, there is strong commitment to Green-House Gas (GHG) reduction in South Africa. Given the high contribution of road transport to total GHG production, the sector needs to make significant progress toward reductions. Road transport assets have a long lifespan as a result, solutions need to be found to reduce the fuel consumption and hence the GHG emissions of existing assets. Adgero (France) has developed a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) for trucks and trailers designed as a retrofit to reduce fuel consumption and emissions by recycling braking energy. The system uses a high efficiency electric motor to recover kinetic energy and then stores it in ultracapacitors. This energy is then used to provide acceleration to the vehicle thereby reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Peri-urban simulations in an IVECO 12 ton delivery truck show a 32.19% reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions with a return on investment of 21.9% on fuel savings alone. This paper discusses KERS systems and presents early results of ultra-capacitor electric KERS systems in simulated peri-urban mission profiles. These systems are due for commercial release in 2018.