Vehicles for sustainable mobility
Projects
Year:
2023-26
Duration:
24 +2 months
Funding Type:
PRIN2022PNRR
Role:
Coordinator
Short Description:
This project investigates the technical viability and impact of using on-board waste heat recovery and storage in a hybrid electric vehicle for public transportation fueled by biodiesel, to improve efficiency and reduce cold start emissions. Heavy-duty vehicles (HDV) – trucks and buses – are responsible for about 25% of CO2 emissions from road transport in the EU. There are currently about 7 million HDV on EU roads, of which over 96% are fueled by diesel fuel. The European Commission recently presented the next stage of emissions standards for HDVs which introduces two sets of limits, for hot and cold emissions, reflecting a focus on the reduction of cold-start emissions. These standards complement the EU's climate change rules for CO2. According to Regulation (EU) 2019/1242 by 2030 new large trucks should emit 30 % less CO2 than today, with an intermediate target of 15 % by 2025. Finding feasible solutions to reduce the environmental impact in the next years is a key issue because HDVs that enter the market before the 2035 deadline would remain in service for many years.
To reach this goal, biodiesel, on-board waste heat recovery (WHR), hybridization, and thermal energy storage (TES) by Phase Changing Materials (PCM) are viable solutions. The innovation of this proposal consists in the synergy between these technologies and in the optimization and control strategy of the WHR system for the integration in the powertrain. In particular, the synergy allows the elimination of Well-to-Wheel (WTW) emissions of CO2 thanks mainly to usage of biofuels, the optimization of the engine operating point thanks to hybridization, the recovery of waste heat from the engine with a small ORC, the reduction of additional fuel consumption and pollutant emissions due to frequent cold start emissions in the hybrid configuration thanks to the TES.
Experimental data, quasi-static and dynamic models, fuzzy logics for energy and thermal management, and multi-objective optimization are used as methodologies. By exploiting the substantial experience gained by the two research units on ORC technology and TES (UNICAL) and on hybridization and optimization (UNISALENTO), an architecture consisting of a hybrid electric system integrated with WHR and PCMs will be designed and analyzed in comparison with a diesel Benchmark Vehicle (BM). The two research groups will work closely together, because the design and energy management of the proposed system call for a continuous exchange of information about the technological constraints and the transient behavior of biodiesel engines, WHRs and PCMs.
An increase in engine efficiency of 5% over a typical driving cycle and a thermal storage efficiency of at least 40% (after twelve hours between consecutive engine starts) are expected as the main results of the project.
Team:
Prof. Teresa Donateo, Università del Salento
Prof. Gianfranco Parlangeli, Università del Salento
Prof. Pietropaolo Morrone, Università della Calabria
Prof. Angelo Algieri, Università della Calabria
Recruited Staff:
Paolo Cutuli, Università della Calabria
Niccolò Viotta, Università della Calabria
Talha Mujahid, Università del Salento
Krishn Chandra, Università del Salento
DISSEMINATION (click here to download)
Presentation at 79° congresso ATI 2024
Presentation at Sustainable transportation - Giornata di studio presso Università Tor Vergata
Presentation at 80° congresso ATI 2025
Presentation at SAE-ICE Capri 2025
Presentation at Biocombustibili e tecnologie per una energia pulita: dalla ricerca all'applicazione - Giornata di studio presso STEM-CNR, Napoli
Presentation at SAE ANFIA 2026, Turin
Presentation at 81° congresso ATI 2026
PUBLISHED PAPERS
"Modeling fuel consumption in a heavy-duty diesel truck under real-world driving conditions including cold-start operation", SAE Tecnical Paper 2025-24-0096
"Preliminary Design and Assessment of a Waste Heat Recovery System for a Hybrid-Electric Heavy-Duty Vehicle" 80th ATI National Congress, Benevento, 10-12 September 2025, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Vol. 3143, No. 1, p. 012094, doi: 10.1088/1742-6596/3143/1/012094
"Conventional and PCM-based heat recovery configurations for hybrid electric heavy-duty vehicles fuelled with fossil or alternative fuels", Energy Conversion and Management, vol 353, 2026, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2026.121206
"Potential of ORC-Based Waste Heat Recovery in Conventional and Hybrid Heavy-Duty Powertrains, SAE ANFIA “CO2 Reduction for Transportation Systems Conference” - June 9-10, 2026, SAE Technical Paper 2026-37-0018
"Predictive Analytics for Truck Cold-Start Emissions, Efficiency, and Exhaust Temperature Data", Algorithms, 2026
"A Review on High-Temperature Phase-Change Materials for Waste Heat Recovery: Advances in Materials, System Integration, and Industrial Sustainability", Advanced Energy and Sustainability Research
DELIVERABLES (click here to download)
D1.1 Experimental and literature data from diesel engines for heavy-duty vehicle
D1.2 Experimental and literature data from the biodiesel engine
D2.1 Specifications of the WHR and of the thermal storage system
D3.1 Specifications of the virtual platform and of the management strategies
D3.2 Report on energy saving and environmental assessment
Media announcements and interviews
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7352988270110093312/
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7353017737461358592/