Week 1 Challenge

AIM: To perform litrature survey on energy cycle analysis and write a technical artical on comparison of overall efficiency of IC engine and EVs.

INTRODUCTION:

In the todays trasforming world the energy is the key. And from all the energy we use, about 20% total energy is used in trasportation sector[1]. And this percentage is increasing year by year. So this seems a big sector where energy use could be made more efficient. And along with energy consumption, the transportation sector also plays a major role in pollution. So it is required to choose the best option available in terms of energy usage and environmental effects.

THEORY:

• Even in the morden days technology the efficiency of IC engine is limited by the mechanical losses and a midrange vehicle has the efficiency of only about 15 - 20% and all other 80% is lost in conversion process.
• Whereas due to exponential evolution in Power electronics devices the efficiency of the motor driver and controller is increasing day by day. As well as the efficiency, the methods for controlling the EV is also playing a major roll in the great control of EV. This technological advancements leads us to the efficiency of about 80-90% which is far better then IC engine.

• As per the research paper published by H.C.Righolt and F.G.Riech in IEEE journal[2], they divided the overall efficiency in two parts.

1. Well to Tank (WTT)
2. Tank to Wheel (TTW)

The overall efficiency is described as Well to Wheel (WTW).

In the case of ICE, the WTT is very high compare to TTW[3,4]. This also can be observed as the stages of WTT for ICE in figure 2, the efficiency of refinary is about 96% and the loss in transportation of fuel is about 1%. But the TTW efficiency is very low due to mechanical losses in ICE, which leads to the efficiency about 15 - 20%.

And in the case of EVs, the TTW efficiency is very good compare to the worst case condition of WTT[3,4]. As we can see in the figure 1, the WTT stage in EVs has many path such as gas based power plant or coal based power station or renewable sources such as solar, hydro, wind etc. So the efficiency of WTT stage varies widely. In gas based or coal based power station the max. efficiency possible is between 40 - 50%, whereas the hydro or nuclear plant also has about 40 - 50% efficiency. The grid to transmit the power also has about 96 - 98% of efficiency. And the TTW stage has the efficiency about 85 - 90% in the case of EVs.

RESULT:

• From all above discussion we can say that both ICE and EVs have their own pros and cons but if we use system such as Norway, which is completly dependent on renewable sources for thier energy requirement The EVs are the best suitable option for overall efficiency and even from environmental point of view. And the key lession we learnt from this challange that the EVs are best suited option for the future and this also can be seen in today's automotive industries as all the leading manufacturers such as Tesla, BMW, Audi and many more are all going towards electric vehicle.

REFERENCES:

1. Energy chain analysis of passenger car transport By Morten simonsen and Hans Jakob walnum,Energies 2011,d.o.i.10.3390/4020324
2. Energy chain and efficiency in urban traffic for ICE and EV by H.C. Righolt and F.G.Reick, IEEE explore,d.o.i.10.1109/EVS.2013.6914820
3. TANK-to-WHEEL report, version 3, Europian council for automotive R&D, Oct. 2008
4. WELL-to-TANK repot, version 2b, Europian council for automotive R&D, May 2006