CAR Participates in Annual CERC TRUCK Meeting in China
The U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center on Truck Research Utilizing Collaborative Knowledge (CERC TRUCK) is one of several Clean Energy Research Center collaborations between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.
On the U.S. side, the program is led by Argonne National Laboratory, and sees the participation of The Ohio State University through its Center for Automotive Research (CAR). Key U.S. partners include Cummins Inc., Oak Ridge National Lab, Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation, Aramco, Purdue University and the University of Michigan.
CERC TRUCK, now beginning its third year, aims to achieve 50% improvement in freight efficiency for commercial vehicles leveraging the expertise of industrial, academic and government partners in the United States and China.
The Chinese team is led by Tianjin University, and includes Tongji and Tsinghua Universities as well as industry partners CAERI, Sinotruk, Weichai and Yuchai.
The Ohio State team is led by Professor Giorgio Rizzoni, with co-primary investigators Professor Marcello Canova, Professor Qadeer Ahmed and Dr. Matilde D’Arpino. The focus of the Ohio State team is on the design and demonstration of a range-extended electric medium-duty delivery truck employing advanced electric propulsion and energy storage technologies.
“The increased demand for door-to-door package delivery has resulted in an increased presence of delivery trucks in urban and suburban settings. An extended-range electric propulsion system for such vehicles would result in greatly reduced local pollutant emissions, as well as in a reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions,” said Rizzoni. “The aim of the Ohio State portion of the project, in collaboration with partners Cummins and Argonne National Lab (ANL), is to design, model, simulate and demonstrate a prototype of such a vehicle (physically developed by Cummins and Freightliner Custom Chassis), Ohio State and ANL will also be involved in large scale traffic simulation studies to understand the benefits of such vehicles when compared with conventional technology trucks in realistic traffic conditions.”
Ohio State is working very closely with Cummins and Freightliner on analysis, design and demonstration programs. Canova and Rizzoni attended the meeting and gave presentations on the progress made in the first two years.
The meeting underscored the continuing desire on the part of the two countries to advance enabling technologies for clean and efficient commercial vehicles.
Written by Muhammed Alrefai, CAR Marketing and Communications Intern
