Fresh off the news that Caterpillar is developing and evaluating a natural gas engine for its heavy equipment (see story here), Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland, has announced that its researchers are working on an electric power transmission system that captures and uses energy on heavy construction equipment. On some machines, fuel consumption is reduced by 50 percent.

Although similar technology has proven successful in cars, hybrid cars capture only energy from wheels during deceleration. Construction machinery creates most of the mechanical energy during work tasks, and that energy has not been captured until now, the researchers note.

The early results have been so successful that the researchers believe so much energy might be captured from construction equipment that some of the stored electricity might even be fed into the local electrical grid system.

The researchers are analyzing the work cycles of different types of machinery to find out which work tasks allow energy to be captured. Deceleration and lowering a load are typical examples. The technology enables short-term energy storage, making it possible to store energy for later use during a peak in power demand. The electric transmission generates other side benefits such as better controllability, operator comfort, efficiency and more freedom in the machine structure.

Reducing fuel consumption cuts operating costs as well as carbon dioxide emissions. With electric power transmission, the machines may even be connected to normal wall sockets, according to a university release.

For the full story, see here.