April 3, 2013
General Motors' German brand Opel said on Wednesday that it had found no evidence in a crash test on its new Mokka SUV that HFO-1234yf could catch fire in a collision and release toxic fumes. They said a realistic test conducted together with the independent testing agency TÜV Rheinland had failed to ignite refrigerant that leaked from the system after impact.
The test is the first to be published since Daimler said in September that HFO-1234yf, the only air conditioning coolant on the market that conforms to a new European Union directive on greenhouse gases, could be the primary source for a vehicle fire.
Opel began installing HFO-1234yf-based systems in its Mokka model at the start of the year but Daimler is violating the EU directive by continuing exclusively to use the non-flammable R134a.
Opel research and development chief Michael Ableson said there was "no alternative in the near future to refrigerant HFO-1234yf. Other possibilities such as CO2-based refrigerants are still in the development stage and are years away from entering the market".
CRASH SIMULATIONS
Daimler says frontal crash simulations that it conducted internally last August showed that a fire could ignite under the hood of a car when the new Honeywell refrigerant, mixed with air conditioning lubricant, came into contact with the manifold of a turbo-charged petrol engine at around 650 degrees Celsius (1,200 Fahrenheit).
Opel said on Wednesday it had crash-tested a 1.4 litre turbo-charged Mokka at a speed of 50 km/h (31 mph) against a movable deformable barrier, meant to simulate driving headlong into the last car in a tailback.
It said the impact had damaged the air conditioning system, causing a leak near the Mokka's hot engine manifold, but without causing a fire.
Gunnar Pflug, head of the traffic safety centre at TÜV Rheinland, said the test had been designed and conducted under TÜV Rheinland's supervision to recreate the extreme conditions that Daimler says are necessary to induce a fire. It included reaching an engine temperature more than 100 degrees Celsius higher than that recorded by Daimler.
"Much faster speeds and there would have been nothing left of the engine compartment, basically," he said. "What we did was no standard test, this was the first of its kind."
Manufacturer Honeywell concedes that the mixture is indeed flammable and releases toxic gases when burning, but argues that Daimler's simulations employed 'ideal' conditions expressly designed to create a desired effect.
Daimler, Mercedes' parent, says simulations as opposed to real crash tests were necessary because each car deforms differently during impact, even if the same test parameters are always applied.
Pflug said this was only partly true.
"The same parts are not always damaged exactly the same way down to the millimetre, but if it isn't the third air conditioning fin that breaks, then it's the second or seventh," he said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/03/gm-honeywell-daimler-refrigerant-idUSL5N0CQ3GL20130403
Showing posts with label greenhouse gases. Show all posts
Showing posts with label greenhouse gases. Show all posts
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Petroleum Use, Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Automobiles Could Drop 80 Percent by 2050; Efficiency, Alternative Fuels, and Strong Government Policies Will Be Needed
March 18, 2013
A new National Research Council report examines what is needed to reduce petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent for light-duty vehicles in the U.S. by 2050. The report concludes that a combination of more efficient vehicles; the use of alternative fuels like biofuels, electricity, and hydrogen; and strong government policies to overcome high costs and influence consumer choices is required. While achieving these goals will be difficult, improving technologies driven by strong and effective policies could make deep reductions possible.
"To reach the 2050 goals for reducing petroleum use and greenhouse gases, vehicles must become dramatically more efficient, regardless of how they are powered," said Douglas M. Chapin, principal of MPR Associates, and chair of the committee that wrote the report. "In addition, alternative fuels to petroleum must be readily available, cost-effective and produced with low emissions of greenhouse gases. Such a transition will be costly and require several decades. The committee's model calculations, while exploratory and highly uncertain, indicate that the benefits of making the transition, i.e. energy cost savings, improved vehicle technologies, and reductions in petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions, exceed the additional costs of the transition over and above what the market is willing to do voluntarily."
Improving the efficiency of conventional vehicles is, up to a point, the most economical and easiest-to-implement approach to saving fuel and lowering emissions, the report says. This approach includes reducing work the engine must perform -- reducing vehicle weight, aerodynamic resistance, rolling resistance, and accessories -- plus improving the efficiency of the internal combustion engine powertrain.
Improved efficiency alone will not meet the 2050 goals, however. The average fuel economy of vehicles on the road would have to exceed 180 mpg, which, the report says, is extremely unlikely with current technologies.
Some specific conclusions:
A new National Research Council report examines what is needed to reduce petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent for light-duty vehicles in the U.S. by 2050. The report concludes that a combination of more efficient vehicles; the use of alternative fuels like biofuels, electricity, and hydrogen; and strong government policies to overcome high costs and influence consumer choices is required. While achieving these goals will be difficult, improving technologies driven by strong and effective policies could make deep reductions possible.
"To reach the 2050 goals for reducing petroleum use and greenhouse gases, vehicles must become dramatically more efficient, regardless of how they are powered," said Douglas M. Chapin, principal of MPR Associates, and chair of the committee that wrote the report. "In addition, alternative fuels to petroleum must be readily available, cost-effective and produced with low emissions of greenhouse gases. Such a transition will be costly and require several decades. The committee's model calculations, while exploratory and highly uncertain, indicate that the benefits of making the transition, i.e. energy cost savings, improved vehicle technologies, and reductions in petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions, exceed the additional costs of the transition over and above what the market is willing to do voluntarily."
Improving the efficiency of conventional vehicles is, up to a point, the most economical and easiest-to-implement approach to saving fuel and lowering emissions, the report says. This approach includes reducing work the engine must perform -- reducing vehicle weight, aerodynamic resistance, rolling resistance, and accessories -- plus improving the efficiency of the internal combustion engine powertrain.
Improved efficiency alone will not meet the 2050 goals, however. The average fuel economy of vehicles on the road would have to exceed 180 mpg, which, the report says, is extremely unlikely with current technologies.
Some specific conclusions:
- The U.S. is unlikely to achieve a 50% reduction in annual LDV petroleum use by 2030 relative to 2005 because very little time remains for achieving the required massive changes in the on-road LDV fleet and/or its fuel supply. Many of the vehicles on the road in 2030 will have been built by 2015, and these will lower the fuel economy of the on-road fleet. With additional policies, 40% reduction may be possible. This will require an increasing number of efficient ICE vehicles, with an increasing share of HEVs in response to the 2025 CAFE requirements. In addition, biofuels mandates by the RFS could displace a significant amount of petroleum fuels by 2030. Additional policy support may be required to promote increased sales of natural gas vehicles, battery-electric vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles.
- The goal of an 80% reduction in LDV petroleum use by 2050 potentially could be met by several combinations of technologies that achieve at least the midrange level of estimated success. Continued improvement in vehicle efficiency, beyond that required by the 2025 CAFE standards, is an important part of each successful combination. In addition, biofuels would have to be expanded greatly or the LDV fleet would have to be composed largely of CNGVs, BEVs and/or FCEVs.
- Large reductions are potentially achievable in annual LDV GHG emissions by 2050, on the order of 60 to 70% relative to 2005. An 80% reduction in LDV GHG emissions by 2050 may be technically achievable, but will be very difficult. Vehicles and fuels in the 2050 time frame would have to include at least two of the four pathways: much higher efficiency than current vehicles, and operation on biofuels, electricity, or hydrogen (all produced with low GHG emissions). All four pathways entail great uncertainties over costs and performance. If BEVs or FCEVs are to be a majority of the 2050 LDV fleet, they would have to be a substantial fraction of new car sales by 2035.
Future low carbon vehicles ‘offer prospect of cash savings for drivers’
March 18, 2013
A study, carried out jointly by Ricardo-AEA and Cambridge Econometrics, aim analysed the economic impacts of decarbonizing light duty vehicles. As part of the study, the impacts of the European Commission’s proposed 2020 CO2 regulation for cars and vans was assessed. The analysis showed that a shift to low-carbon vehicles would increase spending on vehicle technology, therefore generating positive direct employment impacts, but potentially adding €1,000-€1,100 to the capital cost of the average new car in 2020. However, these additional technology costs would be offset by fuel savings of around €400 per year, indicating an effective break-even point for drivers of approximately three years. At the EU level, the cost of running and maintaining the European car fleet would become €33-35 billion lower each year than in a “do nothing scenario” by 2030, leading to positive economic impacts including indirect employment gains.
http://www.ricardo.com/en-GB/News--Media/Press-releases/News-releases1/2013/Future-low-carbon-vehicles-offer-prospect-of-cash-savings-for-drivers/
http://www.ricardo.com/Documents/PRs%20pdf/PRs%202013/Economic%20Assessment%20Vehicles%20-%20FINAL.pdf
A study, carried out jointly by Ricardo-AEA and Cambridge Econometrics, aim analysed the economic impacts of decarbonizing light duty vehicles. As part of the study, the impacts of the European Commission’s proposed 2020 CO2 regulation for cars and vans was assessed. The analysis showed that a shift to low-carbon vehicles would increase spending on vehicle technology, therefore generating positive direct employment impacts, but potentially adding €1,000-€1,100 to the capital cost of the average new car in 2020. However, these additional technology costs would be offset by fuel savings of around €400 per year, indicating an effective break-even point for drivers of approximately three years. At the EU level, the cost of running and maintaining the European car fleet would become €33-35 billion lower each year than in a “do nothing scenario” by 2030, leading to positive economic impacts including indirect employment gains.
http://www.ricardo.com/en-GB/News--Media/Press-releases/News-releases1/2013/Future-low-carbon-vehicles-offer-prospect-of-cash-savings-for-drivers/
http://www.ricardo.com/Documents/PRs%20pdf/PRs%202013/Economic%20Assessment%20Vehicles%20-%20FINAL.pdf
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Why official car fuel economy figures don’t match up to reality
March 13, 2013
European Union green tranpsort policies NGO, Transport and Environment, published a report that they claim provides new evidence and understanding on why there is a growing gap between the official fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of new passenger cars and vans and that which is achieved by the same vehicles on the road. They claim that the report demonstrates that the current (NEDC) test is outdated and unrepresentative of real-world driving and current vehicles, and that lax testing procedures are allowing car-makers to manipulate the official tests to produce unrealistically low results.
The report also claims that the current supervision of testing and checks on production vehicles (to ensure these are equivalent to tested vehicles) are inconsistent and inadequate, with manufacturers paying the organisations undertaking and certifying the tests. They conclude that the current system for measuring car and van fuel economy and CO2 emissions is not fit for purpose and is in need to urgent updating.
http://www.transportenvironment.org/publications/mind-gap-why-official-car-fuel-economy-figures-don%E2%80%99t-match-reality
European Union green tranpsort policies NGO, Transport and Environment, published a report that they claim provides new evidence and understanding on why there is a growing gap between the official fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of new passenger cars and vans and that which is achieved by the same vehicles on the road. They claim that the report demonstrates that the current (NEDC) test is outdated and unrepresentative of real-world driving and current vehicles, and that lax testing procedures are allowing car-makers to manipulate the official tests to produce unrealistically low results.
The report also claims that the current supervision of testing and checks on production vehicles (to ensure these are equivalent to tested vehicles) are inconsistent and inadequate, with manufacturers paying the organisations undertaking and certifying the tests. They conclude that the current system for measuring car and van fuel economy and CO2 emissions is not fit for purpose and is in need to urgent updating.
http://www.transportenvironment.org/publications/mind-gap-why-official-car-fuel-economy-figures-don%E2%80%99t-match-reality
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