DOE to award up to $11M for medium and heavy truck powertrain electrification and dual fuel fleet demonstration

[kscarbel2]

Green Car Congress / September 10, 2015

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0001349 ) announcement for up to $11 million to support projects covering two areas of technical interest.

The first is medium- and heavy-duty powertrain electrification; the second is a dual fuel fleet demonstration. DOE anticipates making approximately 2 to 4 awards under this FOA, with the majority of funding going to electrification projects.

Area of Interest (AOI) 1: Medium and Heavy Duty Vehicle Powertrain Electrification.

The objective of this area of interest is to research, develop, and demonstrate electric-drive powertrain technologies for medium- and heavy-duty Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) and Electric Vehicles (EV) that reduce fuel consumption by at least 50% when compared to an equivalent vehicle with a conventional internal combustion engine powertrain driven on a comparable duty cycle.

• The developed technology must utilize an electric motor for all or part of the motive power required by the vehicle to meet its duty cycle.
• The developed technology must be for a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) or Electric Vehicle (EV).
• The powertrain control and architecture may be optimized for a typical duty cycle to improve efficiency.
• The technology development should be flexible to allow cost reductions by scaling and calibrating these powertrains across multiple segments.

Projects will consist of three phases: Phase 1: Powertrain development; Phase 2: Powertrain integration into a vehicle; and Phase3:Vehicle demonstration for at least one year but may not exceed two years. DOE is encouraging teaming arrangements which involve an electric transportation technology developer, a vehicle manufacturer, and a fleet operator.

Area of Interest (AOI) 2: Dual Fuel Heavy Duty Vehicle Fleet Demonstration.

The objective of this AOI is to demonstrate and evaluate the performance and emissions systems of dual fuel heavy-duty vehicles equipped with engines capable of operation using a mixture of diesel fuel and gaseous fuels (natural gas, propane or natural gas derived fuels such as DME).

Dual-Fuel engine equipped vehicles are capable of benefits such as:

• Reduced Emissions
• Power and torque characteristics of diesel only operation
• Lower cost operation due to replacing diesel with lower cost fuel alternatives
• Reduced reliance on petroleum

The vehicles and dual fuel technologies shall be compliant with New or Inside

Useful Life Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certification requirements (or California Air Resources Board equivalent – CARB), Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), be commercially available, and not experimental, pre-production, or planned for further development under the project.

The vehicles to be demonstrated must be subjected to typical engine operation such as that encountered by public transit buses, fire trucks, heavy-duty on-road commercial work trucks, vocational construction trucks, class 8 long-haul trucks, etc.

The vehicles should be capable of efficiency, reliability, power, and performance comparable to conventional fuel only operation and must be compliant with the latest emission standards for current model year vehicles. The vehicles and conversion systems must be produced in the United States.

DOE strongly encourages that the applicant teams include members appropriate for the proposed vehicle, fuel and operational situation.

[kscarbel2]

Your tax dollars being spent to develop new technology which, if viable, will then be freely handed over to one or more big businesses to profit from.........in return for unspoken compensation.

Big business should orchestrate and finance their R&D, not John Q. Taxpayer who won't benefit from it (e.g. receive a discount on electrified vehicles utilizing the technology his taxes financed).

How much taxpayer money was used by the EPA in their development of their version of massive exhaust gas recirculation (MEGR), the result which was turned over to Navistar to profit from? You'll never know.

Note: MAN and Scania MEGR worked (Euro-5).......the EPA's MEGR system for EPA2010 didn't. Proof that government should stay out of engine design........it isn't their area of expertise.