Air resistance with
standard coach. Illustration: Petter Ekman
(February 20, 2016) Emissions
from the transport sector can be drastically reduced with more streamlined
trucks. Researchers at Linköping University have calculated, and road carrier
owner Erik Alfredsson has built an initial version of the transport vehicle of
the future. The results have also been published scientifically.
More and more goods are being transported on the roads;
despite all the ambitious environmental goals and environmental policies, the
number of light trucks in Sweden have increased by 33 percent – and the
emissions from them have more than doubled over the last 15 years.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel for everyone
worried about the climate and the environment. Erik Alfredsson, owner of
Alfredssons Transport AB in Norrköping, today has 55 both light and heavy
vehicles in his fleet; they’ve been running free of fossil fuels for two
months. The vehicles run on HVO 100, a synthetic biodiesel that is produced
from such things as offal.
Air resistance
after reconstruction. Illustration: Petter Ekman
For a few years now, he’s also been working intensely with
Professor Matts Karlsson and his doctoral student Petter Ekman from the
Division of Applied Thermodynamics & Fluid Mechanics at the Department of
Management and Engineering. The goal is to bring down fuel consumption through
reducing air resistance. Using advanced computer calculations at the National
Supercomputer Centre (NSC) at Linköping University, they have produced a body
profile for a light truck in which air resistance is substantially reduced
without decreasing its carrying capacity.
Mr Alfredsson has had the vehicle built. The base is a
traditional Mercedes light truck that has been given self-supporting floors and
new, lighter material in parts of the body. The box has been rounded off; all
sharp corners and edges are gone, the wheels have been partially enclosed and
the roof has a slight, gentle slope backwards like a wing. Over the 90,000
kilometers the truck has travelled so far, its fuel consumption has decreased
by at least 12 percent compared to the same vehicle with a traditional
body. On average, it consumes
approximately 9.1L of biodiesel per 100 km and can load up to 950 kg.