Volvo Garbage truck
The typical neighborhood garbage truck is not an environmentally friendly sight. With its loud diesel engine that spews CO2 and burns an outrageous amount of fuel this is not a vehicle typically associated with a "greener" tomorrow. However, it does a great service for communities and is essential to clean living. Without that garbage truck what would we do?
Understanding that garbage trucks are a necessity to modern living, Volvo has decided to modernize it. The new Volvo FE garbage truck will go on sale in 2012. This commercial vehicle utilizes a parallel hybrid setup that promises increased efficiency, less pollution, and less noise.
The Volvo FE utilizes a lithium-ion battery pack that allows it to operate at low speeds without the use of its onboard engine. The 600V lithium-ion battery pack is mated to a 3 phase 120kW motor and joined by a 7 liter diesel engine, that outputs 300 hp and 800 Nm of torque. According to Volvo, this setup reduces typical fuel consumption by 30% and CO2 emissions by 20% over its non-hybrid counterparts while also eliminating some of the noise pollution associated with garbage trucks.
The Volvo FE garbage truck with its advanced hybrid powertrain will allow neighborhoods to breathe easier and in some cases sleep longer as the municipal departments goes about their business of ridding the city of trash.
Source: Volvo Press Release
WITH VOLVO, THE HYBRID FUTURE IS ALREADY HERE
Volvo Trucks took on the hybrid powertrain challenge as early as the 1980s and years of subsequent research, development and testing has led to the new cutting edge Volvo FE Hybrid. The solution: parallel hybrid technology using up to 30 per cent less fuel.
One of the quintessential sounds of the city is the early-morning rumble of the diesel-powered refuse truck as it stop-starts up the street accompanied by the occasional tinkle of breaking glass from the rubbish in the compactor. Now, however, this backing track to urban life is about to change with the introduction of the hybrid engine. At low speeds the hybrid truck will replace the diesel's growl with a muted electric hum. The Volvo FE Hybrid, which will be available for distribution trucks and city buses as well as refuse trucks, will be a significant stride forward for environmentally-friendly automotive technology. Besides the considerable noise reductions, the hybrid will reduce CO2 emissions and fuel consumption by 15–20 per cent depending on the application. Volvo has achieved reductions of up to 30 per cent with a plug-in superstructure for waste compression.
"This is the way forward for inner-city stop-start applications, " says Henrik Kloo, who co-ordinated the Volvo FE Hybrid project for Volvo Trucks. "As fuel prices increase and awareness of climate change grows, everyone is asking what they can do. This is part of the answer."
