by Shannon Brescher Shea, from DOE Update!
In the wide world of transportation, vehicle technologies are only one piece of the puzzle. That’s why Clean Cities’ parent office, the Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO), is collaborating with the Fuel Cells and Bioenergy Offices to further coordinate our research, development, and deployment activities. One of our most recent efforts was Sustainable Transportation Day, a showcase of technologies that our offices support, right outside the Department of Energy’s Forrestal building.
The Fuel Cell Technologies Office had two of the stars of the show, with fuel cell vehicles on loan from Toyota and Honda. DOE hosted the Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV), currently available for lease and the Toyota Mirai FCEV, available for both lease and sale in California. Both these vehicles build on the Fuel Cell Technologies Office’s R&D, which has reduced the cost of fuel cells by 50 percent since 2006. The Office also has data from nearly 6 million miles of fuel cell vehicles’ on-road driving and is working with six manufacturers to conduct vehicle and fueling station demonstrations. Learn more about the Fuel Cell Technologies Office’s efforts.
The literally biggest draw was the Freightliner SuperTruck, developed under VTO-supported research. The Freightliner SuperTruck is an innovative, super-efficient Class 8 tractor-trailer developed by Daimler Trucks North America. While the original SuperTruck program goal was to improve freight efficiency by 50%, this truck drastically exceeded this goal with a 115% improvement in freight efficiency over the baseline truck while achieving over 12 mpg in real world driving.
On the other end of the size spectrum was the 3D-printed Shelby Cobra, a replica of the classic sports car. In only six weeks, Oak Ridge National Laboratory printed the car using the Big Area Additive Manufacturing machine. In addition to it taking far less time to produce than usual, the 3-D printing process required less than half of the energy a conventional process would.
But the day wasn’t all business. We also hosted the world’s first algae surfboard and the Green Racing Simulator. The surfboard, which was supported by the Bioenergy Office, is made of an algal oil-based foam instead of polyurethane from fossil fuels. Developed by researchers at the University of California San Diego in collaboration with the biotech firm Solazyme, it was made with only a half-liter of algal oil. The Green Racing Simulator is part of VTO’s Green Racing partnership, a joint effort between DOE, the Environmental Protection Agency, and SAE International to use motorsport competition to promote, help rapidly develop, and test cleaner fuels and more efficient vehicle technologies. The Simulator allows participants to play a racing game where efficiency is just as important as speed.
Sustainable Transportation Day provided all three offices’ stakeholders and the general public a peek into a few of the technologies that will make our transportation far more environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable in the future. Check out more photos on the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Blog.