PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Road transport is responsible for almost 20% of EU greenhouse gas emissions and is the only major sector where emissions are still rising. In 2050, the transport sector is expected to represent around 40% of CO2 emissions, with the freight transport made of heavy-duty vehicles set to become the main source of CO2 emissions from surface transport.
Hybrid or electric vehicles could theoretically contribute to reducing these emissions, but are currently not used for long-distance freight, mainly because of insufficient battery life. The alternative of replacing road freight with inland water or rail transport is not always feasible.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE ECOTRAVID project’s objective was to demonstrate the efficiency of a virtual drive simulator, the so-called Virtual Measurement Campaign (VMC) software, to reduce fuel consumption and related CO2 emissions of trucks and trailers by 5-10%.
To reach this goal, the project ran VMC simulations and generated detailed computations of energy losses for dedicated transport missions, including air resistance, rolling friction and slope resistance. This system acted as a dynamic planning and decision-support toolkit for road transport fleet management, offering the optimal route by cost and truck/trailer configuration for a specific transport mission.
20 trucks and trailers were equipped with sensors and telematics. Fuel consumption reduction was demonstrated for several transport missions.
RESULTS
As planned, the project team adapted and calibrated a realistic virtual drive simulation model for truck transport managers, with enhanced environmental data, refined truck and driver models, which provides more accurate prediction of truck and trailer performance on specific routes and estimations of fuel consumption. This virtual drive engine was integrated into CLS road transport fleet management platform and tested with a transport company, SAMAT Aquitaine in south-western France on a fleet of 20 trucks and trailers. Due to time constraints, and despite an extension of the project duration, the demonstration phase in real conditions was shortened to 8 months, and the measurements on real trips were actually performed in January and February 2023. As a result, the reduction in fuel consumption resulting from the use of the VMC software at SAMAT was estimated for 16 unique transport tasks only. This sample is too small to get a reliable result. The figure, a reduction by 4.7%, is nevertheless coherent with the estimation calculated on theoretical data, i.e. a reduction by 3.5%. Besides, in order to compensate for the lack of real data collected with SAMAT and provide more elements for the potential replication or transfer of the solution to other transport branches, the AB Fraunhofer ITWM developed additional simulations of trips for other transport tasks: hub to hub (large retailers), hub to supermarkets and fuel distribution.
The results obtained are lower than the targeted 5-10%, but still substantial. Nevertheless, the CB CLS decided not to commercialise the virtual drive engine developed within the project due to a strategic positioning with focus on the markets humanitarian and waste management rather than transport logistics. However, the AB Fraunhofer ITWM is planning to use the developments made within the LIFE project in new webservices for truck and trailer manufacturers, which they collaborate with. A business plan was produced by the project team compiling business models studied by CLS (and rejected), as well as ITWM prospects. Therefore, in the immediate and short terms, the project does not result in any environmental and climate benefits, but in the long term it might lead to reduced fuel consumption in road transport and thereby reduced GHG emissions.
