Rail

[Due to the increasing size of the archives, each topic page now contains only the prior 365 days of content. Access to older stories is now solely through the Monthly Archive pages or the site search function.]

Maxwell supplying ultracapacitors for light rail braking energy recuperation system; 2.8% energy savings

April 23, 2013

Clockwise from upper left: ESS enclosure, power control unit and ultracapacitor modules. Source: TIGGER, Tri-Met. Click to enlarge.

Maxwell Technologies, Inc. is supplying ultracapacitors for an energy-saving braking energy recuperation system that American Maglev Technology (AMT), is installing on light rail vehicles operated by the Portland, Oregon area’s Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District (TriMet).

The ultracapacitor-based Energy Storage System (ESS) is an embedded system that captures, stores and discharges 0.7 kWh of energy for use in commercial transit applications. The ESS consists of the ultracapacitors and the required conditioning choppers and auxiliary devices to recapture and store a transit vehicle’s kinetic energy that would otherwise be lost during braking to be re-used for future departures or for the vehicle’s auxiliary power.

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Directly comparable fuel consumption tests on two locomotives finds GE Class 70 PowerHaul could save 18% of fuel compared with Class 66 in UK fleet

January 22, 2013

GE Transportation Class 70 PowerHaul locomotive. Click to enlarge.

Recent testing commissioned by GE Transportation and overseen by Ricardo found that GE’s Class 70 PowerHaul diesel-electric freight locomotive would save 18% of fuel in comparison with the Class 66 currently representing the majority of the UK’s locomotive fleet. The Class 66 is used for 87% of rail freight movements in the UK.

In addition, further significant fuel savings could be made by the Class 70 locomotive when closing down the engine during extended idling using the automatic engine stop/start (AESS) system and Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), or by using power from the dynamic brake being used for driving auxiliary loads.

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Williams Hybrid Power and Alstom cooperate to develop flywheel energy storage technology for Citadis trams

January 17, 2013

Williams flywheel unit. Click to enlarge.

Williams Hybrid Power, a division of the Williams group of companies that includes the Williams F1 Team, and Alstom Transport have signed an exclusive agreement that will see Williams Hybrid Power’s composite flywheel energy storage technology (earlier post) applied to Alstom’s Citadis trams by 2014.

After several years of research into energy storage, Alstom teamed up with Williams Hybrid Power to trial its composite MLC (magnetically loaded composite) flywheel energy storage technology which offers potential fuel savings of 15% when installed in public transport applications.

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Union Pacific Railroad investing $20M to test emissions-reducing locomotive technology in California; moving toward Tier 4 compliance with combination of EGR, DOC and DPF

August 14, 2012

Union Pacific Railroad is investing $20 million to test new technology designed to reduce diesel emissions from freight locomotives in California. A series of 25 experimental locomotives will be based in two Union Pacific rail yards in California as part of a test of emissions-reducing technologies.

One locomotive in this series of 25 will be based in Roseville to test the combined use of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), and diesel particulate filtering (DPF). In testing the combined benefits of these three technologies on one freight locomotive, this Union Pacific unit is the closest an Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) locomotive has come to achieving US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Tier 4 locomotive standards.

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Axion supplying PbC batteries to Norfolk Southern for all-battery switcher and working on line-haul hybrid locomotives; micro-hybrid and stationary expansion

June 25, 2012

The battery-electric NS-999, “under the long hood”. Source: NS. Click to enlarge.

In April, Axion Power International Inc received an order from Norfolk Southern Corp (NS) for PbC lead-carbon batteries for use in an all-battery-powered switcher locomotive. (Earlier post.) Axion Power said this first $400,000 purchase order is part of a $475,000 total purchase order, that will be used in the commissioning of Norfolk Southern’s NS-999 (earlier post). To date, this is the largest single PbC battery order that Axion has received.

The contract marked a milestone in Axion’s 2.5 year involvement with NS, which also includes the parallel development of a hybrid system for line-haul locomotives, noted Axion Power Chairman & CEO Thomas Granville. This larger, more powerful unit will require approximately twice the number of batteries as contained in the electric yard switcher. The contract is also a milestone in NS’ quest for a battery/hybrid locomotive, which reaches back a number of years to the Green Goat effort. (Earlier post.)

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Artemis, Ricardo and Bombardier collaborating on rail brake energy recovery project; Digital Displacement hydraulic pump-motor and flywheel energy storage

May 10, 2012

Artemis Intelligent Power, Ricardo and Bombardier Transportation are collaborating on a research and development project on rail brake energy recovery scheduled to commence in the second half of this year.

The system under investigation combines the Artemis Digital Displacement hydraulic pump-motor system (earlier post) and Ricardo’s Kinergy flywheel high energy density storage system (earlier post) and is intended for use on diesel-powered multiple units. The combined system is expected to offer operating fuel savings of between 10 and 20%, and is conceived of as a cost-effective solution that could be retrofitted to existing rolling stock as well as incorporated into new rail vehicles.

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