railway efficiency poster
DESCRIPTION
Poster exhibited at www.otti.de/pdf/sgm3515.pdfTRANSCRIPT
Add new battery electric vehicles for poorly frequented lines where
electrification does not pay off!
• A suitable battery adds 30% to the mass of a car but only 10% to the mass of a train
• A suitable battery adds 50% to the price of a car but only 15% to the price of a train
• Including the battery costs in the electricity price would triple the electricity price
• Yet, the energy cost would still be lower compared to a diesel railcar!
• Not a new idea, by the way:
it did work even with old heavy lead batteries from 1955 to 1995!
Is railway transportation really energy efficient?And could it still be further improved?
This diesel-hydraulic regional train consumes 1.7 litres of diesel fuel per km
Fuel cost: 0.9 cents per km and seat!
This electric long-distance train consumes17 kWh of electricity per km
Electricity cost: 0.2 cents per km and seat
This diesel-electric express train causes 1,800 € of fuel cost for one single trip from
Berlin to Copenhagen, so some 15 to 50 seats (out of 195) have to be occupied
alone for recovering the fuel cost!
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ar)
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Power requirement car and IC train
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P (IC train)
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Acceleration processcar and IC train0 … 200 km/h
Car acceleration v/vmax
IC train (10 carriages) v/vmax
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ICE 2 high speed train of DB's 402 series
Train rollsTrain brakesCar rolling out
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ICE3 high speed railcarof DB's 403 series
Required forceAvailable forceRequired powerAvailable power
What to do about it? There are three action areas:
A car uses 100% of its engine power to run at maximum speed
A train uses 33% of its locomotive power to run at maximum speed
A car accelerates faster than a train?
Well, initially yes, but somewhat later on...
A car rolls 3.5 km disengaged
A train has not even lost half of its speed after 32 km!
Force and power of a locomotive – availability and requirement for running at constant speed in a
flat area
Support further electrification where not yet in place!
• Unfortunately a combustion engine that can suck up fumes and convert them back into fuel and fresh air during braking has not yet been invented
• A diesel engine in a railway vehicle spends >90% of its operating time idling
• The nature of a diesel engine is pretty well suited for driving a car
• The nature of a diesel engine matches the physics of a railway vehicle quite poorly
• Electric drives are optimal in either case, hence there is much more improvement potential on the rail than on the road!
Improve electrified transportation where already in place!
A regional train serving the 160 km from Aachen to Dortmund with 22 stops reaches a maximum speed of 140 km/h
• All correlated friction losses sum up to an energy requirement of 800 kWh
• All acceleration related energy demand piles up to 1600 kWh
So 50% of energy could be fed back, but only 10% is actually recovered! Hence:
• Replace old locomotives: 10% → 20%
• Improve brake management 20% → 50%
• Replace locomotive hauled trains with railcars (dispersed drives) → >50%
www.slideshare.net/LeonardoENERGYDeutschland/how-energy-efficient-really-is-railway-transportation
Two times yes! While everybody speaks about the electric car, the real potential lies on the rail!
Stefan Fassbinder, Deutsches Kupferinstitut, Düsseldorf / European Copper Institute, Brussels
www.kupferinstitut.de www.leonardo-energy.org http://leonardo-web.org/de