In the last decade, car manufactures invested a lot of effort to align their products to the latest energy directives which encourage the production and usage of electrified vehicles to reduce the greenhouse gases production. This resulted in several important developments, which enhanced the advantages of electric vehicles in terms of local emissions (zero tailpipe emissions), efficiency, convenience in urban areas and others and ultimately led to their ever-increasing adoption. However, there are still some challenges that need to be addressed. One example is the negative influence of low (winter) and high (summer) atmospheric temperatures on electric vehicle range due to the cabin temperature heating and cooling. This requires more efficient ways of using energy to avoid sacrificing the passenger thermal comfort for an increased vehicle range. The present study proposes a new strategy for heating the seats in electrically powered vehicles using an uneven distribution of the heating elements. The uneven positioning of the heating elements is based on the thermal sensitivity of the human skin measured data and scientific literature. For this, a thermal sensitivity test device was developed to map the human skin thermal sensitivity. To test the new solution, a vehicle seat was equipped with heating pads (arranged according to the position of the relevant human skin thermal sensitivity points). For the next step, comparative measurements (power consumption, temperature distribution—with an IR camera—and human subjectivity test) were carried out between a classical vehicle seat heating system and the newly proposed heating solution. The outcome of the study revealed that the proposed heating system will supply at least the same thermal comfort sensation as the standard vehicle seat but using only half of the energy consumption, which translates in an increase of the electrically powered vehicle range between 1.2% and 1.5%, depending on the climate and driving conditions (over the WLTC). For example, a vehicle with a 16 kWh battery driving over the WLTC in Frankfurt climate conditions can gain in 1 year between 139.6 and 164.5 km.

More than 50% of the energy released through combustion in the internal combustion engine (ICE) is rejected to the environment. Recovering only a part of this energy can significantly improve the overall use of resources and the economic efficiency of road transport. One solution to recoup a part of this otherwise wasted thermal energy is to use thermoelectric generator (TEG) modules for the conversion of heat directly into electricity. To aid in development of this technology, this effort covers the derivation of a respectively simple steady-state Simulink model that can be utilized to estimate and optimize TEG system performance for ICEs. The model was validated against experimental data found in literature utilizing water cooling for the cold side. Overall, relatively good agreement was found with the maximum error in generated power around 10%. Following, it was investigated whether air can be used as a cooling medium. It was established that, at the same temperature as the water (18.4 °C), a flow velocity of 13.1 m/s (or 47.2 km/h) is required to achieve a similar cold junction temperature and power output. Subsequently using the model with air cooling, the performance of a TEG installed on a heavy-duty vehicle traveling at 50, 80, 90, and 120 km/h under different ambient temperatures was analyzed. It was determined that both a lower temperature and a higher flow velocity can improve power output. A further increase of the power output requires a larger temperature gradient across the module, which can be achieved by a higher heat input on the hot side.

In this paper the effects of an experimental bioethanol fumigation application using an experimental ultrasound device on performance and emissions of a single cylinder diesel engine have been experimentally investigated. Engine performance and pollutant emissions variations were considered for three different types of fuels (biodiesel, biodiesel-bioethanol blend and biodiesel and fumigated bioethanol). Reductions in brake specific fuel consumption and NOx pollutant emissions are correlated with the use of ultrasonic fumigation of bioethanol fuel, comparative to use of biodiesel-bioethanol blend. Considering the fuel consumption as diesel engine?s main performance parameter, the proposed bioethanol?s fumigation method, offers the possibility to use more efficient renewable biofuels (bioethanol), with immediate effects on environmental protection.

In this paper there were presented researches related to preparation and characterization of physicochemical properties of diesel-ethanol blends stabilized with tetrahydrofuran as surfactant, in order to be used as fuels in compression ignition engines. The main spray characteristics and engine performances of these blends were evaluated by using AVL Fire software. In the first stage of the studies, commercial diesel was mixed with ethanol, in different concentrations (between 2% and 15% v/v), followed by the addition of tetrahydrofuran (THF) until the blends were miscible, i.e. the blends were stabilized. The experiments were done at room temperature (22 0 C). The obtained blends were characterized in order to determine the chemical composition and physicochemical properties, i.e. density, kinematic viscosity, surface tension. UV-Vis spectroscopy was utilized in order to determine a semi-quantitative evaluation regarding the chemical composition of the prepared blends and chemical interaction between diesel, ethanol and THF. Based on the determined properties, the fuel spray characteristics, engine performances and emission characteristics were evaluated by simulation using the AVL Fire software. The obtained results regarding physicochemical properties of blends were compared with diesel. Some improvements were observed when operating with the prepared blends compared to diesel with respect to engine performances and emission characteristics. Based on physicochemical evaluation and computer simulation, it was demonstrated that diesel-ethanol-tetrahydrofuran blends can be used as alternative fuel in compression ignition engines.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the theoretical possibility of using a pilot diesel injection for the auto-ignition of a main ethanol injection in a compression ignition engine. To this effect a predictive simulation model has been built based on experimental results for a diesel cycle (pilot and main injection) at 1500 and 2500 min?1, respectively. For every engine speed, in addition to the diesel reference cycle, two more simulations were done: one with the same amount of fuel injected into the cylinder and one with the same amount of energy, which required an increase in the quantity of ethanol proportional to the ratio of its lower heating value and that of diesel. The simulations showed that in all cases the pilot diesel led to the auto-ignition of ethanol. The analysis of the in-cylinder traces at 1500 min?1 showed that combustion efficiency is improved, the peak temperature value decrease with approximately 240 K and, as a result, the NO emissions are 3.5-4 times lower. The CO and CO2 values depend on the amount of fuel injected into the cylinder. At 2500 min?1 there are similar trends but with the following observations: the ignition delay increases, while the pressure and temperature are lower.