International Transportation | Collection 2020 70 SCIENCE & RESEARCH Academics Projects in a nutshell Overview of selected mobility research projects Zero-emission commercial flights within 15 years? A irbus has revealed three concepts for the world’s first zeroemission commercial aircraft which could enter service by 2035. These concepts each represent a different approach to achieving zero-emission flight, exploring various technology pathways and aerodynamic configurations. All of these concepts rely on hydrogen as a primary power source - an option which Airbus believes holds exceptional promise as a clean aviation fuel and is likely to be a solution for aerospace and many other industries to meet their climate-neutral targets. The three concepts - all codenamed “ZEROe” - for a first climate neutral zero-emission commercial aircraft include: • A turbofan design (120-200 passengers) with a range of 2,000+ nautical miles, capable of operating transcontinentally and powered by a modified gas-turbine engine running on hydrogen, rather than jet fuel, through combustion. The liquid hydrogen will be stored and distributed via tanks located behind the rear pressure bulkhead. • A turboprop design (up to 100 passengers) using a turboprop engine instead of a turbofan and also powered by hydrogen combustion in modified gas-turbine engines, which would be capable of traveling more than 1,000 nautical miles. • A “blended-wing body” design (up to 200 passengers) concept in which the wings merge with the main body of the aircraft with a range similar to that of the turbofan concept. The exceptionally wide fuselage opens up multiple options for hydrogen storage and distribution, and for cabin layout. “These concepts will help us explore and mature the design and layout of the world’s first climate-neutral, zero-emission commercial aircraft, which we aim to put into service by 2035”, said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury. www.airbus.com ZEROe-Blended-Wing-Body concept Photo: Airbus Graphite instead of gold: Thin layers for better hydrogen cars G old-coated bipolar plates (BiP) in fuel cells are expensive and complex to manufacture. The Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS Dresden, the German automotive group Daimler and the Finnish steel company Outokumpu Nirosta have now developed an economical alternative for rapid mass production. Instead of gold, they coat the bipolar plates with a very thin carbon coating. This concept is well suited for mass production and can significantly reduce manufacturing costs. In addition, it contributes to the development of environmentally friendly vehicles. Fuel cells operate like mini power plants: They are supplied with hydrogen and oxygen and use them to generate water, electricity and heat in a chemical reaction. Various designs can be considered. Widely used models are PEM fuel cells. They contain stacks consisting of many individual cells, each with a proton exchange membrane (PEM) in the middle. To the right and left of this membrane there are electrodes with catalysts, a gas diffusion layer (GDL) and bipolar plates on both sides. Hydrogen and oxygen flow through these plates into the cell. The plates consist of two stainless steel half plates each, on which special structures for gas flow and heat dissipation are embossed in a forming process and subsequently welded together. The carbon layer achieves a contact resistance similar to the gold coating. If the engineers further improve their process up to mass production, the coating will conduct electricity at least as well as the precious metal, possibly even better - at half the cost of coating. www.iws.fraunhofer.de/ en.html The Daimler bipolar plate (above) is coated with a carbon layer (below), reducing contact resistance and simultaneously increasing corrosion resistance . Photo: Fraunhofer IWS Dresden International Transportation | Collection 2020 71 Academics SCIENCE & RESEARCH Green shipping: Hybrid propulsion at the highest safety level A unique battery system for efficient fuel consumption in shipping is now approved for operation. EASy Marine adapts flexibly to limited space conditions, increases safety on the water and reduces emissions. The system solves three problems of inland and deep-sea shipping worldwide. Michael Deutmeyer, Managing Director of the German battery manufacturer EAS Batteries, christened the mechanical modular battery concept for the maritime industry on the occasion of its completed DNV-GL certification at the production site in Nordhausen and released it for serial production. The modular space concept of the battery system enables almost every ship owner to convert their propulsion system to a fueloptimized hybrid system. This is because the battery design can be adapted to almost any type of ship architecture - like Lego for adults. The modules can be flexibly combined. rigid battery racks are now a thing of the past. With EASy Marine modules, it is possible to reproduce steps, so that even sloping walls are no longer a space problem. Up to 1,500 volts can be connected in series - fifty percent more than usual. The cell chemistry of EASy Marine modules is based on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) which is considered to be extremely safe: The battery can become hot when in a short circuit, overcharging or mechanical damage to the cell - but it does not burn, the manufacturer asserts. While burning LI batteries cannot be extinguished, EASy Marine rules out such a drama on the open sea from the outset. www.eas-batteries.com EASy Marine battery stack Photo: EAS Batteries Global rail market continues to grow T he rail supply industry has experienced consistent long-term growth over the last few decades. While the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted this growth path by causing lower passenger and freight volumes for rail operators, the attractiveness of rail will allow the sector to recover quickly and continue its positive development. This is the assessment of the authors of the “World Rail Market Study 2020”, which Roland Berger conducted on behalf of UNIFE, the Association of the European Rail Supply Industry. At the end of 2019, rail transport reached a record market value of EUR 177 billion. The sector has experienced annual growth of 3.6 percent since 2017, largely driven by significant investments in rolling stock, infrastructure and rail control. In addition, the number of vehicles and amount of track kilometers in operation - known as the installed base - has grown significantly. Impressively, the global rail network has been extended by 23,300 kilometers and the number of vehicles has increased by 20,000 units since 2018. In the first half of 2020, however, the Covid-19 pandemic triggered an eight percent drop in transport volumes. Lower passenger and freight volumes resulted in postponements and cancellations of orders, as well as a lower services volume. Despite these challenges, the resilience of and continued need for rail mean that experts expect an average annual growth rate of 2.3 percent until 2025 (including the eight percent drop). As a result, the total market volume is expected to reach EUR 204 billion by 2025, based on an assumption of a rapid recovery of the market, known as the V-case scenario. Prior to 2020, much of the rail growth was taking place in the Asia-Pacific region and Western Europe, with respective contributions of 5.3 percent and 3.8 percent to the positive development of the entire market. In the upcoming years, CIS and Eastern Europe will add considerable market volumes, encouraged by government initiatives such as the Rail Baltica project. Latin America has the highest growth forecast in the rail control market on account of significant investment in the freight sector. The market for rail supply is also expected to see sustained demand from mature markets like Nafta and Western Europe. Overall, rail control and infrastructure are forecast to grow at the strongest rates, while rolling stock and services will remain the largest segments. To download the World Rail Market Study Executive Summary and to order the UNIFE World Rail Market Study see www.unife.org The major areas of growth Picture: Roland Berger International Transportation | Collection 2020 72 SCIENCE & RESEARCH Academics Clean fuel from sunlight, CO 2 and water R esearchers from the University of Cambridge have developed a standalone device that converts sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into a carbon-neutral fuel, without requiring any additional components or electricity. The device is a significant step toward achieving artificial photosynthesis - mimicking the ability of plants to convert sunlight into energy. It is based on an advanced ‘photosheet’ technology and converts sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and formic acid - a storable fuel that can be either be used directly or be converted into hydrogen. The results, represent a new method for the conversion of carbon dioxide into clean fuels. The wireless device could be scaled up and used on energy ‘farms’ similar to solar farms, producing clean fuel using sunlight and water. However, it is challenging to produce these clean fuels without unwanted by-products. “Storage of gaseous fuels and separation of by-products can be complicated - we want to get to the point where we can cleanly produce a liquid fuel that can also be easily stored and transported,” said Professor Erwin Reisner, the paper’s senior author. In 2019, researchers from Reisner’s group developed a solar reactor based on an ‘artificial leaf ’ design, which also uses sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to produce a fuel, known as syngas. The new technology looks and behaves quite similarly to the artificial leaf but works in a different way and produces formic acid. While the artificial leaf used components from solar cells, the new device doesn’t require these components and relies solely on photocatalysts embedded on a sheet to produce a so-called photocatalyst sheet. The sheets are made up of semiconductor powders. In addition, this new technology is more robust and produces clean fuel that is easier to store and shows potential for producing fuel products at scale. The test unit is 20 square centimetres in size, but the researchers say that it should be relatively straightforward to scale it up to several square metres. In addition, the formic acid can be accumulated in solution, and be chemically converted into different types of fuel. Qian Wang, & al.: Molecularly engineered photocatalyst sheet for scalable solar formate production from carbon dioxide and water. In: Nature Energy (2020). DOI: 10.1038/ s41560-020-0678-6 www.cam.ac.uk First author Dr Qian Wang Photo: University of Cambridge Photo: Jeshoots.com/ Unsplash Fly on holiday in view of climate change? S ince 1992, global warming and its effects have been discussed at international level, and despite many efforts, it has not yet been possible to stop its progress. “Climate change is the greatest challenge mankind has ever faced, and there is no way to avert the threat at the last minute, as is the case with diplomatic crises, for example”, Dr. Anna Luisa Lippold points out in her dissertation “Climate change and individual moral duties” submitted at Ruhr University Bochum. She tackled a question of great concern to many: What individual moral obligations do we have in view of climate change? Are we still allowed to fly on holiday? Eat meat? Take milk in our coffee? “Yes and no”, says Lippold, “the problem is much bigger.” Even if all people worldwide were to driving less, saving electricity and going vegan, it wouldn’t be possible to stop climate change. People in Germany currently cause about nine tonnes of CO 2 per capita per annum, and would have to reduce their footprint to 1.2 tonnes in order to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees. “Since we can’t turn our way of life back to the Stone Age, this is impossible to achieve without massive technical innovations and the involvement of economic actors. Only collective action can bring about the necessary change.” The objective of her thesis was to show a pragmatic way that examines what needs to be done within what timeframe and for what rational reasons in order to limit climate change - without advocating any ideologies. She doesn’t see the moral duty primarily and exclusively in reducing individual CO 2 emissions. But we’re not off the hook quite so easily because we have the moral obligation to safeguard the rights of future generations. Lippold advocates the individual duty to advance collective action. Almost no-one is exempt from this moral obligation to interfere, she explains, arguing that people belong to so-called weak collectives that are morally obliged to act. The model was developed by the Elizabeth Cripps, philosopher at the University of Edinburgh: it comprises the Young, people up to the age of about 40, who can only protect their moral rights together. The Able, i.e. all those who have the chance to intervene, for example because of their educational background and income. And the Polluters, which include all those who together cause climate change. Almost everyone belongs to at least one of these groups, and many belong to several. “Morality is not an opinion,” stresses Lippold. “Just because you give up flying, you can’t assume that you have done all that is morally necessary. But if you take climate protection seriously, you shouldn’t fly on holiday.” Anna Luisa Lippold: Climate change and individual moral duties. A plea for the promotion of a collective solution. Mentis Verlag, Paderborn 2020, 294 pages, ISBN 9783957431851