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Hybrid Boom Truck
Benefits of Hybrid Technology
Hybrid drivetrains are particularly attractive for vehicle applications that entail a significant amount of stop-and-go driving, such as refuse haulers, urban delivery trucks or school buses. A major benefit of a hybrid vehicle is the ability to capture and use a large percentage of the energy normally lost in vehicle braking. By allowing engine speed to be controlled independently of vehicles speed, significant additional emissions and fuel consumption reductions can be achieved. Preliminary testing of various hybrid truck types on different duty cycles indicates that emissions and fuel consumption reductions in the 30-60% range are entirely achievable.
Hybrid Truck Meeting
October 23, 2007
HARC hosted a meeting to discuss the prospect of establishing a Texas Hybrid Truck Coalition. The primary objective of such a coalition would be to help accelerate the commercialization of hybrid technology and deployment of hybrid trucks in Texas. Attendees heard several presentations from both the manufacturer and end-user perspective followed by a lively discussion highlighting some of the issues holding back rapid deployment of hybrid trucks into the market place.
Presentations
 Hybrid Trucks: On the Cusp of Production - Bill van Amburg, Calstart/Weststart (3.31 MB)
Explore Texas Hybrid Truck Coalition - Rudy Smaling, HARC (77 KB)
Waste Management's Fleet Experience - Ron Pope, Waste Management (129 KB)
Silver Eagle Distributor's Fleet - David Coffee, Silver Eagle, ITEC (1.14 MB)
Priorities and Deliverables - Rich Haut/Mustapha Beydoun, HARC (72 KB)
Hydraulic Launch Assist System - Gary Gotting, Eaton Corporation (6.25 MB - Large File)
2007 Hybrid Overview - Jim Williams, International Truck & Engine Company (2.43 MB)
Hybrid truck technology uses secondary energy storage and delivery systems to augment power delivered though the engine. The two primary means of energy storage and delivery are hydraulic and electric.
Hydraulic hybrid technology uses a hydraulic energy storage and propulsion system in the vehicle. This hydraulic system captures and stores a large fraction of the energy normally wasted in vehicle braking and uses this energy to help propel the vehicle during the next vehicle acceleration. The hydraulic system also enables the engine to operate more efficiently when it is needed.
Hybrid electric technology uses a battery pack to store energy captured during braking or through a generator powered by the engine. Electric motors are used to provide additional torque during vehicle acceleration, or can operate the vehicle independent of the engine below a certain speed threshold. Additionally, many vocational trucks use equipment (e.g. lifts, booms, compactors, etc) that can be electrified and operated directly from the battery pack without the engine operating.
Why a Texas Hybrid Truck Coalition?
As Bill van Amburg states: "hybrid truck technology is on the cusp of production". Some of the early hybrid truck applications have successfully made it through the technology development stages and are ready for commercialization. Unfortunately, these "ready for prime time" systems are caught in a catch-22. R&D funding is no longer available and sales volumes are too low to allow economies of scale to drive prices down. Higher sales volumes are difficult to reach because prices are still too high. Many new technologies languish in this so-called "valley of death".
Calstart/Weststart founded the Hybrid Truck Users Forum (HTUF) several years ago to drive development of hybrid truck technology. HTUF has been extremely successful at the national level and has accelerated hybrid truck commercialization by almost two years. The time is now to step up efforts at the local and regional level to push this technology, with significant benefits in both fuel consumption and emissions reduction, to full production. Organizing Texas fleet owners and operators into a coalition will have several benefits, including, but not limited to:
- Ready access to the latest information and technology developments
- Sharing of fleet experiences with hybrid technology
- Combining individual fleet purchases into larger block purchases reduces cost
- More end-user leverage in developing hybrid vehicle specifications
- Leverage in obtaining federal and other grants to help buy down incremental cost
- Leverage resources to develop a range of business cases for hybrid trucks
- Accelerate commercialization of hybrid technology
- Accelerate support infrastructure development (maintenance and servicing)
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| Page Updated/Reviewed: 11/05/2007 9:18 AM |
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