Emission and Consumption optimized TRAnsport missions using Virtual Drives
Life EcoTravid Project
CONTEXT
Road transport plays a major role in the Global Warming as responsible for more than 25% GHG emissions.
In 2050, the transport sector will represent around 40% of the CO2 emissions and the freight transport is expected to become the main source of CO2 emissions from surface transport. Greener transport mode such as blue ways of rail transport can’t replace trucks in most cases for geographical or infrastructure reasons and battery lifetime constraints prevent to consider electric/hybrid trucks as a viable solution for the coming decades.
It is thus critical to find alternatives allowing to efficiently optimize and reduce HDV fuel consumptions and related CO2 emissions.
PROJECT
LIFE ECOTRAVID PROJECT
The LIFE ECOTRAVID project aims at demonstrating the efficiency of a virtual drive simulator, based on the so-called Virtual Measurement Campaign (VMC) software, to reduce from 5 to 10% fuel consumption of trucks and related CO2 emissions.
The VMC software will be integrated in an online monitoring and decision-support IT toolkit, added upon CLS’ road transport fleet management platform: Trailermatics. This module will complement the various connected fleet management solutions already offered by Trailermatics, such as planning, maintenance, tyre pressure and analytical dashboards.
The integrated system will act as a dynamic planning and decision support toolkit for road transport fleet management providing the route and truck/trailer configuration for a specific transport mission, balancing cost and fuel consumption in an optimal way.
The LIFE ECOTRAVID project is co-financed by the financial instrument of the European Union LIFE.
LIFE PROGRAMME
The LIFE programme is the EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action created in 1992. The current funding period 2014-2020 has a budget of €3.4 billion.
TECHNOLOGY
To reach the objective of fuel consumption reduction, the proposed innovative VMC software (developed by ITWM) will combine aspects in a completely innovative way:
OBJECTIVES
In a context where environmental protection is growing and becoming a real necessity, the Ecotravid project is dedicated to reducing heavy duty vehicle (road transportation of goods) consumption:
Highly realistic models for vehicle, driver and traffic as well as possible system modifications
Demonstrate the efficiency of the innovative Virtual Drive Engine to reduce truck fuel consumption and the related CO2 emissions.
Real-world data describing the environment of vehicles very accurately, e.g roads, topography, traffic, climate
Achieving a dynamic routing engine, which uses real-life data for the environment and more realistic driver and vehicle models to come to sensible and practical consumption and emission values.
Detailed computations of energy demands for dedicated transport missions, including analysis of different losses (air, rolling and slope resistance)
Decision making toolset: new transport planning tool set providing alternative routing options that are optimum for fuel consumptions and GHG emissions. Key planning information will be provided to the drivers to allow them making optimal decisions in real time.