Skip to main content

Low construction engine emissions project

The University of Hertfordshire is collaborating in a £9 million project aimed at reducing carbon emissions from off-highway machinery. The University of Hertfordshire’s School of Engineering and Technology is part of a specialist engineering consortium working on the project. Benefiting from more than £4 million in funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK Limited (APC), the project includes companies such as Caterpillar subsidiary Turner Powertrain Systems and Torotrak, a developer and supplier o
October 18, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The University of Hertfordshire is collaborating in a £9 million project aimed at reducing carbon emissions from off-highway machinery. The University of Hertfordshire’s School of Engineering and Technology is part of a specialist engineering consortium working on the project.

Benefiting from more than £4 million in funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK Limited (APC), the project includes companies such as 178 Caterpillar subsidiary Turner Powertrain Systems and Torotrak, a developer and supplier of emissions reduction and fuel efficiency technology.

The aim of the project is to develop a new drivetrain system that will reduce carbon emissions and have better energy storage. This new drivetrain will be used for a range of off-highway equipment.

The three and half year project is expected to begin in December and will focus on developing and commercialising a leading edge hydrostatic, continuously variable transmission with a flywheel-based energy storage system. This is expected to deliver improved performance along with reduced fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. It should also allow manufacturers of off-highway equipment to downsize engines across a wide range of construction machines.

Flywheel-based energy storage technology is ideally suited to off-highway and construction equipment applications because it offers a robust, low-cost way to allow engine downsizing while improving machine productivity.

Staff from the School of Engineering and Technology will provide advanced simulation, modeling and design expertise in the area of computational fluid dynamics, rotadynamics and finite element analysis. The research will also benefit from the University’s High Performance Computing cluster.

Dr Rodney Day, Associate Dean (Research and Commercial) in the School of Engineering and Technology said: ‘This is a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with two leading companies to develop this novel technology for the off-highway market.’

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Plantworx 2023 is UK gaining momentum
    November 3, 2022
    The 5th biennial construction machinery exhibition Plantworx is on 13-15 June 2023, at East of England Arena and Events Centre in Peterborough, England.
  • World of Asphalt/AGG1 Aggregates Forum & Expo
    April 13, 2012
    World of Asphalt 2012 and the co-located AGG1 Aggregates Forum & Expo will be the largest in the history of the two events.
  • World of Asphalt/AGG1 Aggregates Forum & Expo
    March 14, 2012
    World of Asphalt 2012 and the co-located AGG1 Aggregates Forum & Expo will be the largest in the history of the two events. Guy Woodford reports on some of the technology and equipment set to be on show. With over 6,500m² of exhibit space available, World of Asphalt 2012 (WoA) is among the global showpiece events of the year for all asphalt, pavement maintenance and traffic safety industry professionals.
  • LED lighting delivering technical benefits
    April 30, 2015
    A new report from the Lighting Research Center* at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute focuses on the benefits from switching to LED lighting technologies There is a rapidly changing landscape for roadway lighting worldwide, largely due to the widespread acceptance of light-emitting diode (LED) technology. In developed markets such as the US, this has opened up a universe of new possibilities regarding LED replacement lamps. There are 144 million high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps in the US, representing