Contribution to CO2 emissions reduction (or at least neutral impact to climate change)
Predicted traffic growth poses a significant hazard to achieving CO2 emission targets. Furthermore, the EU6 emission limits require up to twice as high cooling power in road vehicles as compared to present technologies. In the past, technical progress made in emission by the vehicles was over-compensated by the growth of ground transportation. Again, the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC) sets “low emission” as one of the major goals for future surface transport research: “...The research challenge is to deliver low emissions while also meeting ... vehicle performance, reduction in green house gas emissions and improvements in energy efficiency.” (ERTRAC, Strategic Research Agenda 2020). The European Rail Research Advisory Council (ERRAC) identifies very similar future research needs.
Typically the combustion of 1 litre gasoline produces 2.38 kg of CO2, of diesel fuel 2.66 kg. For cars the latest EU-wide goal of CO2-emission of 120 g/km corresponds to 5.0 litre gasoline or 4.5 litre Diesel consumption per 100 km. As a rule of thumb 100 kg less vehicle weight reduces the fuel consumption by 1 litre per 100 km. Thus decreasing the weight of an automotive cooling module by 2 kg yields an improvement in fuel consumption by 1%, i.e. a reduction of CO2 by 1.2 g/km. Although this does not seem a lot the automotive industry is putting tremendous effort on reducing weight of each component - even by the gram - which eventually sums up to a substantial weight reduction of the complete vehicle. In addition an increase of efficiency of the electric or hydraulic fan (typical power consumption: 100 W to 1 kW), say by 5%, reduces the CO2-emission in the same order of magnitude.
The Diesel engine in a large locomotive is rated 3,600 kW, the maximum power required by the cooling fans is 270 kW. Typically the specific fuel consumption of the locomotive at full load is 191 - 195 g/kWh. The power required for operation depends very much on the load (weight of the train), the track and the climate. VTLT estimates that a reduction of the cooling fan power in a Voith loco by 10% may lead to an overall fuel saving of 1,300 kg, i.e. 3 tons less CO2-emissions per year.
In ECOQUEST no technology will be accepted which achieves noise reduction by adding weight or increasing energy consumption of the vehicle. Thus the technologies aimed at are CO2 neutral or CO2 reducing. This will be provided by introducing new simulation tools for optimization, novel noise reduction measures such as innovative fan designs with increased or neutral efficiency and micro-perforated components rather additional damping material.