Client: EU
Contractor: TTK within consortium
Start: 1997
End: 2001
It was the task of this EU project to develop an autonomous propulsion system for public transport vehicles.
As a result of the need to mini-mise pollution in cities by reducing the demand for personal transport, regional passenger transport is a rapidly growing market in Europe. Persistent requirements for mass transport include: reduction in investment cost, minimisation of emissions, reduction of maintenance costs, and improvements in energy efficiency.
The objective of this project was to develop a hybrid powertrain, comprising a gas turbine engine directly coupled to a high speed generator, a flywheel and power electronics for traction and regenerative braking. The complete system, under the authority of a supervisory control unit for safe and efficient operation, would be installed in a suitable test vehicle. The components were tested in the prototype vehicle for their safety, environmental acceptability, performance, functionality, operability, maintainability, and reliability.
The series electric hybrid configuration allows a much smaller prime mover unit for the vehicle, operating at peak performance. The benefits of lower emissions, higher system efficiency and bi-modal operation are the main advantages of the ULEV-TAP system. Furthermore, this tech-nology, when applied to fixed route vehicles (rail and trolleybus) enables pure elec-tric drive flywheel/overhead catenary as well as hybrid propulsion, dispensing the need for electrification, important to tramtrain oppor-tunities.
The project showed clear performance benefits which makes this drivetrain an attractive and practical solution for a wide range of mobile applications in addition to urban transit vehicles.
Ultra Low Emission Vehicle – Transport using Advanced Propulsion (1)