With a number of engineering issues surrounding the use of biofuels, global engineering firm Ricardo has launched a consortium with the aim of evaluating the impact of biofuels for both current and future light-duty engine technologies.

Ricardo hopes to use its insight and research skills in automotive technology to help the consortium address some of the pressing challenges of increased biofuel use. For example, in terms of biodiesel, the focus will be on the effect of the wide variability of fuel chemistry resulting from the broad range of potential feedstocks and the challenge of fuel storage that emerge from instability and reactivity to air.

The consortium will be open to oil companies, car manufacturers, tier one suppliers, additive manufacturers and government agencies. Its work will be structured into modules – the first of which focuses on the effect of biofuel content on diesel performance, emissions and economy. Three further modules are being considered: the effects of biofuel content on petrol performance, emissions and economy; the effects of biodiesel on vehicle stability; and the effects of biodiesel on fuel in oil dilution and how advanced post injection calibration techniques could limit this problem.

It is hoped that by adopting a modular approach there will be a flexible scope that maximises the benefits of the pre-competitive research and that it will enable members to share costs.

The consortium is part funded by the Department for Transport and will remain open to applications from members throughout the duration of work.

A new project has set the ambitious goal of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 30-40 per cent.

Known as the HyBoost project, this two-year research programme announced recently by the Technology Strategy Board, aims to demonstrate a cost-effective, ultra-efficient petrol engine in a C-segment passenger car. The research is being led by Ricardo, with partners including Controlled Power Technologies, Ford, Imperial College London, Valeo and the European Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium.

It hopes to produce a car that offers the performance of a 2.0litre model while keeping CO2 emissions below 100g/km. To achieve this, the partners will look into the synergistic application of an extremely downsized petrol engine as well as exhaust gas recovery, electrified boosting, micro-hybrid functionality with stop/start, regenerative braking, a novel energy storage technology and torque assist. 

According to Neville Jackson, Ricardo group technology director, HyBoost could take the ‘average car’ into a new, greener era.

“HyBoost aims to demonstrate the very significant benefits that can be achieved using an intelligent combination of innovative technologies to deliver low carbon transport solutions,” he said.

“The stated targets of this research would enable a consumer-attractive ‘average car’ to be offered with CO2 emissions well below the mandated future target set for the European fleet average without compromising vehicle performance.”

The technologies will be restricted to innovations that can be practically produced in the near term and must be constructed with readily available and affordable materials with high scalability required to meet the needs of the automotive industry at large.

A familiar name here on TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk is that of Ricardo. Ricardo, among other things is known product innovations within the automotive sector including the development of unique and advanced hybrid and electric car systems.

Yet this is not where the firm’s success within the industry ends, for Ricardo has also just been honoured with a ‘Noise Oscar’ for its development of its ‘WAVE’ software used to refine the performance of a car’s engine.

The highly innovative WAVE software product allows vehicle engineers to optimise exhaust and intake system geometry in such a manner as to maximise engine efficiency – including performance, emissions, fuel consumption and CO2 – while minimising radiated noise and improving auditory quality. The increasing use of WAVE by the automotive industry and related sectors including marine, power generation, construction and rail, has enabled significant improvements in engine performance to be made, both in terms of emissions and noise production.

Commended in the technology category, Ricardo attended the award ceremony held yesterday by the UK Noise Abatement Society. The awards, formally known as the John Connell Awards after the society’s founder recognise those to have been outstanding in their efforts to reduce the impact of noise nuisance and who have sought to pioneer practical and innovative solutions to noise pollution.

Commenting on the award, Ricardo UK Ltd engineering director Jason March said: “Ricardo shares the vision of the Noise Abatement Society in striving to reduce noise pollution and hence improve public health, productivity and quality of life. Over many years of on-going research and development our software engineers have striven to create CAE tools to enable both the improvement of sound quality and the minimisation of unwanted radiated noise from new products. We are particularly proud that our WAVE product has been recognised with a commendation by the Noise Abatement Society.”

The noise produced by road traffic is a serious threat to human health. Not only is it unpleasant, road noise is link to an increase risk of heart attacks.

Eco-Innovation Technology Company Ricardo has been awarded a contract to develop a new vehicle under the Fuel Efficient Ground Vehicle Demonstrator programme for the US Army.

Known as the FED programme, it was launched in late 2008 with the goal of improving military vehicle technology while reducing fuel consumption on the battlefield and cutting the nation’s dependence on oil.

By applying its expertise, Ricardo will aim to develop and manufacture a demonstration vehicle that maximises fuel economy while maintaining the capability and performance of light tactical wheeled vehicles.

According to Paul Luskin, Ricardo’s chief programme engineer for the programme, the project is a testament to Ricardo’s experience in supporting military vehicles.

“The FED project leverages Ricardo’s experience and success in supporting the development of a broad range of military vehicles over several years,” he said. “In particular, TARDEC has recognised Ricardo’s role on the Future Tactical Truck System, in which we successfully implemented advanced technology into an innovative vehicle architecture.

“Our objectives include not only training embedded government engineers in order to enhance TARDEC’s vehicle engineering capability, but also educating government staff on the issues relating to fuel economy, including implementation of technology and trade-offs in performance requirements.”

The contract is for the second phase of the programme and follows on from the initial phase in which Ricardo applied its total vehicle fuel economy systems to evaluate current and emerging technologies that could improve the fuel efficiency of the entire vehicle. The efforts drew on Ricardo’s expertise across a variety of fields including hybrid propulsion, transmissions, driveline systems, controls and electronics.

Ricardo, one of the leaders in the development of electric and hybrid vehicles, has welcomed President Obama’s announcement of $2.4billion in grants to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of the next generation of US batteries and electric vehicles.

The company’s CEO Dave Shemmans described the Recovery Act funding as a “welcome stimulus” and said it should provide some much needed and far-sighted direction that other countries may wish to emulate.

 “If the history of previous downturns holds any lessons for us, it is that as an industry we must not lose sight of the importance of research, development and product innovation,” he said. “But with the twin challenges of mitigating the effects of climate change and increasing energy security, it is all the more important that these efforts are given a clear focus.

“Measures aimed at spurring innovations that will increase the electrification of road transportation, such as those announced today, are to be welcomed as extremely good news for the auto industry as well as for society.  This vision is shared by Ricardo and is reflected in our proactive investments in infrastructure and facilities in the area of electric and hybrid vehicle technologies and advanced battery systems development.”

The company has already established a Battery Systems Development Centre at its Detroit Technology Campus, which provides one of the world’s most comprehensive and integrated range of capabilities for turnkey development and application of high voltage battery pack systems in hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles.

Previous advances in engine technology may have been based on separate developments by the fuel and lubricants industries, but Ricardo believes that there is a need for an integrated approach between automakers, Tier 1 equipment providers, lubricant additive manufacturers and oil companies.

That’s why the company has launched a new consortium to evaluate the lubricant innovations that are required to enable implementation of many promising low-friction, high efficiency engine technologies.

It believes that by bringing together interested parties from each industry sector, it can create a framework in which fundamental challenges can be investigated and researched.

The particular areas of interest would be: the implications of extreme engine downsizing and increased specific power; tolerance to increasing volumes of exhaust gas recirculation; advanced component designs and new material applications; a drive towards thinner, lower viscosity lubricants; and the chemical impacts of lubricants on biofuel dilution.

The consortium’s work will be structured into a series of modules. According to reports, it has already gained interest from many leading oil companies, lubricant additive manufacturers and car makers. A first meeting is planned in October 2009.

With the need for vehicle manufacturers to deliver lower emissions, improved fuel economy and higher standards of durability and performance, Ricardo has enjoyed such massive demand for its engineering services that it has now opened a new €4million expansion of its test facilities.

The 800sq m expansion of its powertrain facilities in Schechingen has test bed capacities of up to 610kW and 3,500Nm torque. It is particularly suited to the demands of heavy duty diesel engine development as well as advanced after treatment technologies.

A dedicated dynamic tilting test bed which enables oil circuit development for the strong lateral G forces experienced in some high performance applications has also been included.

The expanded facility has two new fully transient powertrain test cells bringing the total at the facility up to 15. There is also space for a further two high specification powertrain test cells, one of which is expected to be commissioned in 2010. Its inauguration is part of an on-going strategy by Ricardo to expand its testing capacity in Germany in order to support the growth of its business in what is Europe’s largest automotive market. The company has also acquired a further 4,000sq m of land adjacent to the test centre to accommodate further expansion.

Peter Heuser, the company’s managing director, was thrilled with the site’s opening.

“Ricardo has enjoyed a period of dramatic expansion of its engineering service business in Germany over the past three years and it is important that we are able to offer our customers access to a comprehensive range of flexible and technically advanced test facilities to support their product development programmes,” he said.

“Our investment in this newly expanded test facility will provide, for example, a crucial enabling capability in assisting our heavy duty customers to achieve the requirements of Euro VI emissions, as well as our passenger car customers to meet the European goal of achieving a 130g/km CO2 fleet average.”

Ricardo will team up with the Weifang Shengrui Power Machinery Technology Company to produce an advanced and globally competitive eight speed automatic transmission for manufacture in China.

Wiefang Shengrui is an independently held supplier of engine components to both the car manufacturers and engine builders in the Chinese market. It also supplies some of the leading manufacturers in Europe and has set its strategy of expansion into transmissions and hybrid powertrain components and systems.

The team, which will be based both at Ricardo Shanghai and at Ricardo’s UK Midlands Technical Centre, has acquired a development and production licence for an advanced eight speed automatic transmission concept that uses a combination of epicyclic and parallel axis gearing with three simple planetary gears that are used together with a single brake and four clutch units.

The system will have several advantages including a simple arrangement that requires no special gear design; a compact design with significant packaging benefits; flexibility for further adaptation for four-wheel drive; and the potential for excellent shift quality.

The production version of the transmission is planned for late 2011.

Ricardo has stamped its place as one of the leading technological names in terms of fuel economy after providing expert advice to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with regards to the 2009 CAFE rulemaking which will come into effect in 2011.

The firm provided expert advice on technical analysis of comments received for the Notice of Proposed Rule Making through which interested parties may comment on US regulations.

Ricardo was picked for the task as an impartial and independent authority to assess the comments as well as the cost and effectiveness of fuel saving technologies. Indeed the company was even recognised in the final published version of the rule, which states that:

“NHTSA chose to contract Ricardo because of its extensive experience and expertise in working with both government and industry on fuel economy-improving technology issues.” 

It’s not the first time that Ricardo has been involved with some highly significant schemes. It has also provided support to the Environment Protection Agency, the National Academy of Sciences and to branches of the military.

According to the results of simulation studies announced today by a consortium including Ricardo, Jaguar-Land Rover, E.ON and Amberjac Projects, a substantial medium-term rise in the number of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles would have a much lower impact on the UK national power grid than has previously been estimated

The research study has been carried out by the consortium as part of the Range Extended Hybrid Electric Vehicle (REHEV) project, which is led by Jaguar-Land Rover and part-funded by the Technology Strategy Board. The study marks completion of the first stage of the REHEV project and has focused on a range of vehicle charging scenarios and levels of market penetration in order to predict the likely increase in national energy usage. Four vehicle fleet charging scenarios were simulated, comprising uncontrolled domestic charging, uncontrolled off-peak domestic charging, ’smart’ domestic charging and uncontrolled public charging throughout the day – for example, by commuters who recharge their vehicles while at work. Charging was assumed to be single phase AC as this is the most likely near-term solution, but the study also considered fast charging scenarios as for a large number of vehicles the energy demanded over a time period is likely to be the same and distributed evenly.

Assuming a 10 per cent market penetration of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and pure electric vehicles in the UK vehicle parc (a proportion representing approximately 3 million passenger and light goods vehicles) the study showed a daily peak increase in electricity demand of less than 2% (approximately 1GW) for the scenario of uncontrolled domestic charging – the ‘worst case’ in terms of peak power demand. Other scenarios are less challenging: off-peak domestic charging, for example, increases electricity consumption throughout the night but has no impact on the peak daily demand. Since it will be a number of years before a 10 per cent level of market penetration is achieved even with the recently announced UK government incentive plans, grid capacity at a national scale should be adequate for this significant electrification of the vehicle fleet.  While the national impact is shown to be manageable, the research team emphasise that local improvements may nevertheless be necessary – for example, where local network capacity is marginal or where particularly high concentrations of electric or plug-in vehicles occur.

Further work is ongoing to look at the timeline for reduced power station CO2 emissions which is the key enabler for electric and plug-in hybrids to reach true ultra low carbon status. Future reports of the REHEV project will look at fast charging infrastructure which would offer significant consumer benefits in the use of electric and plug-in hybrids.

Commenting on the results presented by the REHEV project, Neville Jackson, Ricardo group technology director (and recently appointed chair of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership), said:

“The increasing electrification of road vehicles is likely to be a key enabler for future significant reductions in transport related CO2 emissions. While the provision of publicly accessible street level infrastructure in the form of recharging points remains a challenge, the research findings published today by the REHEV project show that existing UK power grid capacity will be sufficient in the medium term to support a significant expansion of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle use and is therefore not a constraint on implementation.”

Ricardo CEO, Dave Shemmans, added:

“The initial findings of the REHEV project together with the recent UK government policy announcements in support of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles are a further vindication of Ricardo’s strategy of focusing on future clean and low carbon vehicle technologies.  We have already successfully delivered well in excess of 100 hybrid and electric vehicle programmes and I look forward to further success from the REHEV team as it continues with this highly valuable research.”

The REHEV project consortium is now continuing its work, which will see the development of a modular electric and electric/diesel powertrain, suitable for several different vehicle types.  This will initially be tested on a large premium sport utility platform, delivering 120 to 130 g/km and with significant zero emissions potential. Future passenger and commercial variants could have an all electric range of in excess of 20 miles, meaning that the majority of typical vehicle trips could be completed with zero tailpipe emissions. Longer range travel would still be accommodated with the internal combustion engine removing the range anxiety issues often associated with pure electric vehicles.