Torotrak acquires 20% of Flybrid Automotive Ltd, with option for remainder by end of year; accelerating adoption of flywheel hybrids; Allison investment
19 March 2013
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Cutaway of the Flybrid flywheel and Torotrak IVT. Click to enlarge. |
UK-based toroidal drive company Torotrak has acquired a 20% stake in flywheel hybrid innovator Flybrid Automotive Ltd (formerly Flybrid Systems LLP) (earlier post) with an option to acquire the remaining shares before the end of the calendar year.
Torotrak says that the transaction strengthens its ability to provide turnkey development and manufacture of complete flywheel hybrid systems for buses, trucks, passenger cars, commercial and off-highway vehicles. The company expects the deal will accelerate the adoption of its technology, which it says will be in fleet trials with bus operators later this year through an agreement with bus constructor Wrightbus.
Flybrid Automotive already has a successful long-term relationship with Torotrak, which uses Flybrid’s flywheel module in its Mechanical Kinetic Energy Recovery System (M-KERS). M-KERS captures and stores energy that is otherwise lost during vehicle deceleration events.
As the vehicle slows, kinetic energy is recovered through the KERS continuously variable transmission (CVT) and stored by accelerating a mechanical flywheel. As the vehicle gathers speed, energy is released from the flywheel, via the KERS CVT, back into the driveline.
The full toroidal variator combined with a torque control operating strategy seamlessly transfers energy from the vehicle driveline to the flywheel during dynamic operation, when the speeds of both elements are changing independently. Torotrak’s variator reliably and naturally adopts the appropriate ratio, giving accurate control of the transmission torque and therefore precisely defining the energy flow.
M-KERS can recover up to 70% of braking energy for around a third the cost of battery electric hybrids, the company says.
As well as allowing us to accelerate the development of our M-KERS technology family, this acquisition will secure our access to what we believe is the most market-ready flywheel system available. We now have the complete skill set, development resources and low-volume manufacturing expertise needed to help vehicle manufacturers, across a wide range of applications, introduce a technology that will allow them to significantly reduce CO2 emissions for a fraction of the cost and weight of conventional electric hybrids.
—Torotrak CEO, Jeremy Deering
Flybrid’s carbon fibre flywheel spins at up to 60,000 rpm in a near vacuum. Drive can be provided by the company’s CFT (clutched flywheel transmission) clutch-based transmission system or by Torotrak’s CVT (continuously variable transmission).
Flybird introduced the CFT in 2011 for the 100 kW Flybrid KERS for Le Mans 2011. The system uses a series of small clutches to transmit the drive between the flywheel and the main vehicle gearbox. Proven in motorsport applications such as LMP1 sportscar racing, CFT KERS can provide up to 100 kW and 540 kJ of storage in a system that has a full wet weight, including the electro-hydraulic control system, of less than 40 kg (88 lbs).
CFT KERS scales down very well so could open-up a new market for small, low-cost automotive hybrids. It’s a good fit with Torotrak’s CVT, which is ideal for higher power systems and is already central to several of our customer programs.
—John Hilton, Flybrid co-founder
Flybrid’s portfolio of development programmes includes Volvo Cars (which uses Torotrak’s CVT), Wrightbus, two manufacturers of off-highway vehicles and several motorsport constructors. Evaluation programs are ongoing with several other vehicle manufacturers across a wide range of sectors including passenger cars. Flybrid says that if these relationships continue to progress as planned, their technology could be specified for a production vehicle by 2016. Torotrak’s investment will provide additional resources to help secure this timing.
Deering sees these relationships as also offering considerable potential to extend the reach of Torotrak’s other technologies, particularly the company’s high-efficiency transmissions and low-cost, variable drive pressure charging system.
Hilton also sees synergies in technology and manufacturing.
Both technologies use high speed rotating assemblies of precision machined components and the electronic and hydraulic control systems are so similar that a single control unit can be used to control either product. These shared aspects will help the combined companies develop more quickly and at a lower cost than either party could on its own.
—John Hilton
Market prospects for flywheel hybridization. In an independent report on flywheel hybrid technologies, commissioned by Torotrak, Ricardo Strategic Consulting concluded that pure mechanical flywheel hybrids promise similar fuel economy and CO2 benefits to electric hybrids but at around one third the cost.
The purely mechanical flywheel system eliminates the cost and price instability of exotic metals, the end-of-life costs of batteries, the need to train dealers and bodyshops to work safely with high voltages and several other significant penalties of traditional high-voltage solutions, the Ricardo report found. The report suggests that in the heavy duty commercial vehicle market, pure mechanical flywheel hybrids “appear to be one of the most cost-effective powertrain technologies for reducing CO2.”
This view is supported by E4tech, an independent research consultancy specializing in sustainable energy and low carbon vehicles (advisors to the UK Government’s Department of Transport). Their research concludes that the Flybrid technology is well suited to the bus market, medium-volume market entry in the commercial vehicle market and to some sectors of passenger cars, saying that it can match or improve upon electric hybrid fuel economy improvements of at least 15%. Their view is that the considerably reduced costs would enable it to become an established low carbon technology ahead of likely fuel cell mass-market adoption.
In passenger car applications, pure mechanical flywheel hybrid technology could reduce emissions of CO2 by up to 30 g/km at a cost of around £20 (US$30) per gram, says Ricardo. This compares favorably with their estimate of £20 - £45 (US$30 - $68) per gram for enhanced Internal combustion engine technologies and up to £90 (US$136) per gram for electric hybrids.
Passenger car manufacturers are now making decisions about which technology to invest in as they prepare for very challenging 2020 emissions targets in Europe and 2016 / 2025 fuel economy targets in the US. We believe that purely-mechanical flywheel hybrids can significantly cut the cost of compliance using modular technology that can be quickly integrated and doesn’t require any enabling investments or other technology steps.
—Jon Hilton
Torotrak expects the first application of pure-mechanical flywheel hybrid technology will be in the urban commercial vehicle market, where benefits are strongest and volumes can be managed through existing relationships. In the mid-sized UK bus market alone, there are 3,000 new vehicles each year and an existing fleet, with retrofit potential, of 50,000 vehicles. There are also substantial opportunities with other fleets that operate a stop-start drive cycle such as urban delivery vehicles and refuse vehicles.
In the passenger car sector, the Ricardo report forecasts penetration levels of 0.4% - 3.8% by 2020, offering potential volumes of up to four million units per year. As well as affordable hybrids, these could include high-performance cars where the ability to release energy very quickly (more quickly than batteries) provides an attractive, differentiating ‘press to pass’ function.
Torotrak’s Deering points out that the combination of the recent strengthening of the company’s high-precision manufacturing capability, together with joining forces with Flybrid’s own supply capability, means they can jointly support volumes from prototypes and fleet trials up to around 20,000 units a year, at which point the technology becomes attractive to global first tier partners.
Allison. Separately, Torotrak concluded negotiations, under a Licence and Exclusivity Agreement dated March 2009, with its licensee Allison Transmission, Inc., under which Allison will pay £6.0 million (US$9 million) for continued exclusivity to manufacture and sell Torotrak main drive transmissions in commercial vehicle market segments; this exclusivity excludes Torotrak’s other commercial vehicle licensees, Tata Motors and the European Truck and Bus manufacturer (ETBM).
Allison has also subscribed for an additional 8,248,434 new ordinary shares in Torotrak at a price of 30.255p per share, raising approximately £2.5 million (US$3.8 million).
Allison is committed to introducing fuel-efficient, emissions-reducing technologies and our licensing decision today with Torotrak reflects our determination to be a global leader in this field. We are pleased with Torotrak’s progression following the strategy announced in November 2012 and want to support the investment arrangements with Flybrid, which are forward-looking and offer good growth potential.
—Lawrence Dewey, Chairman, President and CEO of Allison
The next step in Allison’s programme is to focus on a final design to optimize performance, size and weight. Torotrak is taking responsibility for core component testing and to establish a fully conformed supply into the Allison program, helping to reduce lead times. Torotrak will also assist Allison with product design and validation process support in Europe.
Resources
E4tech (2013) Kinetic energy recovery systems
"M-KERS can recover up to 70% of braking energy for around a third the cost of battery electric hybrids, the company says."
"Proven in motorsport applications such as LMP1 sportscar racing, CFT KERS can provide up to 100 kW and 540 kJ of storage in a system that has a full wet weight, including the electro-hydraulic control system, of less than 40 kg (88 lbs)."
"In passenger car applications, pure mechanical flywheel hybrid technology could reduce emissions of CO2 by up to 30 g/km at a cost of around £20 (US$30) per gram, says Ricardo. This compares favorably with their estimate of £20 - £45 (US$30 - $68) per gram for enhanced Internal combustion engine technologies and up to £90 (US$136) per gram for electric hybrids."
This tech could eat the hybrid lunch if the new "cheap, breakthrough" batteries don't hit the market soon.
Posted by: kelly | 19 March 2013 at 09:34 AM
I wonder how they test the long term torsional wear and tear of having a flywheel while making thousands of turns per year.
It seems like gyroscopic forces would resist each turn and eventually the flywheel will have had to resist these forces so many times, it would be suprising if there weren't noticeable effects from the wear.
Posted by: HealthyBreeze | 19 March 2013 at 10:01 AM
Combine this with ICE efficiency updates and idle-stop and you have a great city car without having to deal with all the battery issues of electric hybrids (cost, weight, packaging, replacement, etc). Put this in a Honda Fit, for instance and get that city mileage up over 40 mpg.
Posted by: Nick Lyons | 19 March 2013 at 10:04 AM
Gyroscopic forces on high-speed flywheels are not all that great; angular momentum equals Iω, but energy is ½Iω². The faster the flywheel for a given energy storage, the lower the gyroscopic forces are.
I'd like to see this combined with the rim-loaded magnetic material to let the flywheel be a motor-generator. This could be used to drive accessory loads with the engine off, or to spin up the flywheel from external power at bus stops.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 19 March 2013 at 11:08 AM
This tech could eat the hybrid lunch if the new cheap, breakthrough batteries don't hit the market soon.
Private utility companies oppose homeowners gaining the means to store surplus electricity, supply the grid during peak demand, combine rooftop photovoltiac systems, survive a grid failure, gain the means to conserve energy, etc.
Automobile-related business interests oppose plug-in hybrids because they last years longer, incur fewer accidents, encourage shorter routine driving habits whereby walking and bicycling become better travel options and mass transit more practical to arrange.
This flywheel nonsense is a ruse the Coch Brothers employ to steer attention toward a dead end.
Posted by: Sirkulat | 19 March 2013 at 12:12 PM
Flywheels have windage losses of ~100%/day and aren't suitable for much more than minutes of backup.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 19 March 2013 at 02:50 PM
"Flywheels have windage losses of ~100%/day and aren't suitable for much more than minutes of backup."
Source?
Posted by: kelly | 19 March 2013 at 04:18 PM
Has only near windage; "Flybrid’s carbon fibre flywheel spins at up to 60,000 rpm in a near vacuum".
They claim it costs "around a third the cost of battery electric hybrids"
But it has only "... 540 kJ of storage ..." which is a very small fraction of the energy in a typical battery electric hybrid.
It better be cheap if all it stores is one decel and provides one accel to medium speed.
Posted by: ToppaTom | 19 March 2013 at 10:42 PM
Roughly, if no error, the 540 kJ (Joule = 1 watt second) would last 5 seconds at 100 kw, ~ a tenth of the Prius hybrid battery storage.
Posted by: kelly | 20 March 2013 at 07:18 AM
If the above figures are correct, 10+ of these Flybrids flywheels units would have to installed on a Prius III for equivalent performance?
Posted by: HarveyD | 20 March 2013 at 09:15 AM
This would still make a lot of sense for flywheels capable of storing energy for a full stop-start cycle, or even several miles of travel. A flywheel bus using the Busbaar to spin it up at stops looks like a winner, especially for noise and performance.
At a gross weight of 16 metric tons, 540 kJ is the kinetic energy of moving at 18 MPH.
With mechanical bearings you're looking atPosted by: Engineer-Poet | 20 March 2013 at 09:18 AM
Non-electric propulsion systems are inferior. Studies on ineffective engine, drivetrain and fuel systems serve automobile-related business interests who'll spend a fortune to maintain the status quo, the car transportation monopoly, oil war, the corporate economics of sweatshop production and global transport.
Posted by: Sirkulat | 20 March 2013 at 09:40 AM
@HarveyD, the flywheel energy storage is relatively small compared to batteries. But any added energy is 'free' from prior unsaved deceleration.
Roughly, this fully 'charged' flywheel energy seems able to roughly accelerate a small car from 0 to ~45 mph, then 'recharge' from future deceleration's and repeat, endlessly, as needed.
If actually as stated, it could pay for itself in stop-n-go traffic. But it can't hold enough power for miles of
'flywheel only' vehicle travel.
Posted by: kelly | 20 March 2013 at 10:35 AM
New ultra caps and near term new ultra quick charge/discharge batteries already have and/or will soon have the capability to recover 75+% of the braking energy and store more energy than a light flywheel.
New generation ultra caps will probably accomplish more and/or have the potential to do more than light flywheels and are/will be interesting alternative.
Posted by: HarveyD | 20 March 2013 at 01:36 PM
There's a good UC Davis report on ultracap microhybrid and mild hybrid fuel efficency gains, that would probably be comparable for a flywheel. http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/?page_id=10063&pub_id=1637
Posted by: HealthyBreeze | 20 March 2013 at 02:52 PM
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 20 March 2013 at 04:12 PM
This could change things: http://www.ionova.com/zip-cap-redefine-ultracapacitor-price-performance.php
Posted by: kelly | 20 March 2013 at 04:55 PM
Current top grade ultra caps can already do as well as flywheels without all the extra mechanical complex parts, noise, vibration and wear, assuming that it is applied to an electrified (current or future) vehicle.
Near future (2018 or so?) ultra performance batteries may do almost as well?
Flywheels may be OK when applied to ICEVs, specially in stop and go city traffic.
Posted by: HarveyD | 21 March 2013 at 11:34 AM
“Private utility companies oppose homeowners gaining the means to store surplus electricity, supply the grid during peak demand, ”
Really! It only took a few post to confuse transportation energy with stationary power. It is free country but if you want to connect to the grid you have to follow the fules.
“Non-electric propulsion systems are inferior. ”
Burning fossil fuel in external combustion engines to power cars is much better!
What we have here is another debate comparing one completely impractical technology to other completely impractical technologies.
Posted by: Kit P | 22 March 2013 at 05:29 AM
New transmission CVT design by BitRaptor. Is a continuously variable transmission CVT gear only (the only one functional in the world), very compact and lightweight, and which could replace the current systems for efficiency, simplicity and costs.
With the appropriate configuration, the continuously variable transmission CVT Edyson can transmit any ratio, with high efficiency (more then 95%).
Because this CVT work only with pinions is better the all other systems by efficiency and high torque transmission.
In the web page you will find more explanations, drawings and a short video of a basic prototype.
http://www.bitraptor.com/en_edyson_CVT.html
http://www.bitraptor.com/en_andeguro_bike.html
The first prototype will be ready for tests during this year.
Other possible applications CVT design by BitRaptor are: bicycles, motorcycles, cars, boats, gearboxes, electric motors, steam and wind turbine, as well as a large number of industrial or agriculture applications whenever is necessary some adjustment of the gear ratio.
Posted by: BitRaptor Edyson Pavilcu | 28 April 2013 at 11:02 AM