| The commitment by Ford to invest £1
billion in developing technologies to reduce emissions and improve fuel
economy means that its UK engineers have a lot of work ahead of them.
But what will they be working on? The company has decided that a range
of solutions is required, some having more impact than others and rolling
out at different phases: it does not believe in a “magic bullet”
fix to the issue of carbon emissions.
The technologies, for the most part, are not new, but perhaps the advance
here is to make them available and affordable en masse: to design and
manufacture in a form suitable for mainstream cars instead of niche vehicles
only or range topping applications.
Burning better: The Duratec SCi will
get an improved combustion system
Ford’s call for a 70mpg Focus is one example of how this will be
achieved. A new powertrain to replace the IC engine would be ideal, but
for the immediate future, adopting changes across as many models as possible
has great potential to reduce dependence on fossil fuel and curb CO2 emissions.
Richard Parry-Jones, Ford chief technical officer, said: “We believe
we have to follow a multiple strategy for three reasons. First, there
is no single technology on the horizon that will enable the automotive
industry to play its full part in stabilising levels of atmospheric CO2.
Second, we cannot say for certain which way the market will go in the
future and how much regional differences will play a part…And finally,
as vehicles get cleaner and cleaner the technological challenge to eek
out further improvement increases.
“By deploying multiple technologies we are able to make a series
of small and medium size gains and leverage our range of vehicles and
sales volume.”
Research and development will focus on:
• New generation lightweight premium vehicles
• Five new gasoline engines with direct injection
• Three advanced diesel engines
• Four new and advanced transmissions
• Hybrids; gasoline and diesel (micro/mild/full)
• Alternative fuel capability (bio fuels)
• Systems and driving modes to improve economy by optimising vehicle
operation
• Further efficiencies through measures such as reduced warm-up
time, reduced drag, reduced loads
Lightweight in this context means aluminium. Jaguar has developed the
body-in-white for the XJ and XK from the material; the former is 40 per
cent lighter than its steel predecessor. The expertise from these programmes
will be used to develop new luxury cars for all Ford’s premium brands.
Increased use of high strength steels has been slated for mainstream models.
Further savings will be developed through mass decompounding – engine
downsizing with commensurately lighter transmissions, brakes and suspension.
Weight directly affects fuel consumption and therefore CO2 emissions.
Gasoline engines have not been subject to the same intensive development
as their diesel counterparts in recent years, so there is scope to close
the efficiency gap between the two.
Fuel management is the major area for improvements: the direct injection
system used in the Duratec SCi engine fitted to the Mondeo since 2004
will be further improved by a switch from wall to spray guided combustion;
Mercedes was first to market with this system in the CLS 350 CGi. Turbocharging
is also under consideration, and these two combined could cut CO2 by 20
per cent over a naturally aspirated port injected engine.
The addition of advanced valve control and stop/start are planned for
select powertrains.
Ford’s Duratorq family of turbodiesel engines will see further development
to reduce CO2 by 5-10 per cent. Emissions of NOx are of one the stumbling
blocks with diesel engines: Ford is to examine “cold combustion”
to reduce NOx levels. Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is one method used
at present to reduce combustion temperatures, thereby inhibiting formation
of the pollutant. NOx storage catalysts and selective catalytic reduction
(SCR), including urea-based systems, add cost and complexity to exhaust
gas aftertreatment and may prove difficult to incorporate into the mainstream.
Transmissions will include the Powershift system; a six speed automated
manual transmission developed with Getrag. Like the Volkswagen-Audi’s
direct shift gearbox, twin wet clutches are used: one each for the odd
and even gears, with pre-selection making for smoother shifts. Compared
with a conventional automatic, fuel economy is improved by 10 per cent.
Transmitting the vision: the Powershift system built
with Getrag is set to develop
Hybrids will be developed for gasoline and diesel powertrains, but Parry-Jones
did make the point that European markets are already paying a premium
for diesel cars, so hybridising presents a cost issue. Micro hybrids are
a sensible first step, and Ford says a combination of its two litre TDCi
diesel and a belt driven starter generator (B-ISG) offers potential fuel
economy gains of between 5 and 15 per cent.
Ford views biofuels as a primary means of reducing overall CO2 emissions
from transport and is working with BP to develop advanced so- called “second
generation” biofuels.
The range of alternatives extends beyond E85, one reason why Volvo developed
the multi-fuel prototype. The engine operates on hythane (10 per cent
hydrogen, 90 per cent methane), bio methane, compressed natural gas (CNG),
E85 and gasoline. The principle behind this concept is that most use is
made of biofuels available locally, reducing fuel transportation.
Sweden has an advanced ethanol economy, promoted by government incentives
such as free parking and freedom from the congestion charge for alternative
fuel vehicles; the company would like to see the same ideas implemented
in other countries.
Introduced in 2001, Flexi fuel models account for 80 per cent of Focus
sales in Sweden.
Installing selectable driving modes into cars is perhaps the most interesting
of the options chosen by Ford, especially as Parry-Jones admitted that
“people won’t give up what they have today in order to be
green”. One idea put forward is a control, like terrain response
in the Land Rover Discovery, that would allow the car to operate such
that performance was optimised for minimum pollution. Alternatives are
driver displays to inform the driver how much pollution the vehicle is
producing.
Aerodynamics are intrinsically linked to CO2 emissions: at 70mph, typically
80 per cent of energy is expended pushing the car through the air. So,
cut drag and you cut pollution. Among other measures, Parry-Jones said
Ford is considering “intelligent cooling”, where the radiator
grille aperture is made variable to match the thermal load on the coolant,
thus reducing drag when possible.
Belt-driven ancillaries dent engine efficiency, so a switch to electric
power – coolant pumps for example – can make a contribution
to reduced engine loads and reduced pumping and hydraulic losses.
The warm-up period is a significant area of energy waste and extra pollution
because the catalysts have yet to reach lighting-up temperature.
In all, Ford believes that cuts in CO2 of 3 per cent per measure are possible.
|
|
