Evaluation of road freight energy efficiency technologies for HDVs

Abstract

Fuel consumption derived emissions in the transportation sector are one of the major sources of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, that lead to large problems like global warming and atmospheric contamination. Road freight heavy duty vehicles (HDVs), and especially Class 8 trucks, are responsible for a large portion of these emissions, and that is why a large number of energy efficiency and emission reduction plans have been created for that vehicle class. Powertrain hybridization, logistic systems improvements and the development of technologies for energy efficiency improvement and emission reductions are the main focus of these plans. This study presents a literature review on the main technologies available for energy efficiency improvement for HDVs and the most widely used test procedures to test their effectiveness, understanding that scientific information availability is essential for the promotion of the use of these technologies. Furthermore, a practical application of a real-world testing procedure (NCh 3331) to test the impact of an aerodynamic improvement device on timber trucks is presented. A 3.19% improvement in fuel consumption was obtained with fully loaded vehicles, whereas no impact can be statistically justified with unloaded vehicles. An average 2.2% impact on fuel consumption is obtained considering the average impact of the use of the aerodynamic improvement component on both situations.