trailer world issue Two 2010

16 Issue Two 2010 Future III original substance for biofuel. The creatures they use are said to be cheap, efficient and quick to reproduce. Unusual raw material is also used by the Finnish energy company St1: six decentral reactors receive deliveries of organic waste – from bakeries, brewer- ies or from the production of potato crisps – which is then converted into biofuel. The manufacturer claims that the resulting etha- nol has the best possible eco-balance: while diesel fuel refined from fossil oil produces 3.8 kilo of CO2 per kilo in the combustion process, the same value for the St1 fuel is no more than 0.01 kilo. The pilot plants pro- duce around 1 million litres of fuel a year. In Germany, a BTL refinery at Choren in Freiberg (Saxony) was officially inaugurat- ed two years ago among others by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. However, it has still not got beyond the test phase. Once it is operating under full load, it is supposed to produce 18 million litres of eco-diesel per year. Dimethyl ether is a special case in hand: this is a gaseous fuel, but like liquid gas, it can be made ready for use at comparatively moderate pressure of 5 bar. Truck manufac- turer Volvo is coordinator of the European bio-DME project and joined forces with the oil company Preem to open a DME fuel sta- tion in Stockholm this autumn, with others to follow. Selected transport companies are also involved in the practical test that will be run- ning over several years. Jules Verne’s vision Already back in the 19th century, author Jules Verne had the vision of using water as the fuel of the future. The chemical separa- tion of water produces hydrogen which can be used as mobility fuel either in fuel cells or in modified combustion engines. In 1999, a hydrogen fuel station was in- stalled (but meanwhile decommissioned) at Munich Airport as part of the H2argenmuc project. MAN was one of the system partners in the ten-year experiment. The approach was interesting insofar as the modified MAN en- gines had no problem in using waste hydro- gen in the combustion process, which cannot be said for fuel cells. Estimates indicate that industrial production in Germany generates enough hydrogen to operate several thousand city buses. However, both MAN and car mak- er BMW have given up their attempts to use H2 in conventional engines. Fuel cells demand a completely different vehicle concept, as hydrogen is used in the cells to generate electricity. The resulting drive system is then based on electric mo- tors. A few years ago, fuel cells were viewed in general as the ideal drive system for the future because of the practically unlimited availability of hydrogen. Meanwhile the fuss has died down, due amongst other things to the large amount of energy needed to generate H2 and the problems involved in handling hydrogen. Some manufacturers have completely given up attempts to continue develop- ing the principle that has been known for around 170 years; on the other hand Daim- ler and also other premium manufacturers such as BMW or Honda still see chances. The Citaro FuelCELL-hydbrid by Mer- cedes-Benz is meanwhile the third genera- tion of city buses to be powered by fuel cells. They have a range of around 250 km; still far too limited to forecast a great future for fuel cells in the truck sector, particularly as long as H2 production is not up and run- ning on a large scale. And so it is still go- ing to take a few years before we can really see whether Jules Verne’s prediction was correct. (rk) H2argenmuc hydrogen fuel station for buses at Munich airport. Volvo is testing DME fuel in distribution traffic. Photos:H2argemuc,Volvo,Graphic:Hoffmann

trailer world issue Two 2010

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