Novel smart solar-powered freezer truck unveiled in Hong Kong

The transport sector is a big contributor to greenhouse fuel emissions in Hong Kong, accounting for 19% of whole emissions. Supporting the event of inexperienced transport might help cut back air pollutant emissions. The Hong Kong Polytechnic College (PolyU) is dedicated to selling analysis into inexperienced applied sciences to help Hong Kong’s aim of lowering the Metropolis’s whole carbon emissions from the 2005 degree by half earlier than 2035 and attaining carbon neutrality earlier than 2050.

A analysis crew led by Prof. Eric Cheng, Professor of the Division of Electrical and Digital Engineering at PolyU, obtained help from the “Innovation and Technology Support Program (Mid-stream, theme-based)” final June for the analysis mission “Smart Refrigeration Truck Development Program—Power, Solar and Intelligence Method for Logistics and Storage.” The mission is aimed toward selling the transformation of freezer vans from conventional gas pushed freezer system to good electrical pushed and strengthening the broader adoption of photo voltaic vitality.

After one yr, the PolyU crew has efficiently developed a novel freezer truck that helps a solar-powered freezer system and options vehicle-connected energy storage and sharing expertise. The mission has obtained staunch help from the federal government, academia and business, together with from Daylight Eco-tech Restricted, Superior Daylight Pty Restricted from Australia, and the Electrical and Mechanical Providers Division.

Presently, there are roughly 5,000 freezer vans in Hong Kong, and this quantity is predicted to double within the subsequent few years. These autos are all powered by gas engines, which produce a big quantity of exhaust fuel and noise when working or idling.

The expertise utilized in typical freezer vans is comparatively outdated, with the freezer system counting on the car’s inner combustion engine for energy. Even when the car is stationary, to keep up operation of the freezer system the engine can’t be turned off.

As well as, the temperature of the freezer system is usually maintained at round -20 levels Celsius, limiting the forms of meals that may be refrigerated. If every car consumes one to a few liters of diesel per hour, it should produce 2.7 to eight.1 kg of carbon dioxide, leading to annual emissions of roughly 16 tons. To offset these carbon emissions, about 760 bushes should be planted.

The good solar-powered freezer truck developed by PolyU supplies versatile vitality enter choices. Key highlights are as follows:

Extensible photo voltaic photovoltaic (PV) panels: Put in on the roof, these PV panels might be prolonged to extend the truck’s energy output, enhancing its energy efficiency. The truck is provided with an vitality storage system that captures and shops the electric energy generated, offering extra vitality for the car’s freezer system.

Onboard lithium-ion battery: Along with the photo voltaic vitality storage, the truck additionally has an onboard lithium-ion battery that may be linked to plain electrical car charging amenities for recharging. When the photo voltaic vitality storage is stuffed, and the battery is absolutely charged, they will energy the freezer system for as much as 4 hours. Customers even have the choice to broaden the quantity and capability of batteries to additional prolong operation time as wanted.

Highly effective and versatile freezer system: The onboard refrigeration system can keep temperatures as little as -45 levels Celsius. Furthermore, it may possibly proceed working even after the electrical engine is turned off, successfully remodeling the car right into a cell freezer unit. This might help tackle the scarcity of freezer warehouses in Hong Kong.

Moreover, the freezer truck can hook up with different autos of the identical kind for charging and vitality sharing. With the vehicle‘s good vitality administration system, customers cannot solely monitor and management the utmost output energy of the PV panels to reinforce effectivity of various vitality sources, but in addition optimize the freezer efficiency, and delay the lifetime of the onboard battery.

Prof. Eric Cheng mentioned, “The HKSAR authorities has carried out a number of insurance policies lately to advertise the popularization of electrical autos, together with setting a goal to stop new registration of fuel-propelled non-public automobiles in 2035 or earlier. Nonetheless, for freight autos, the adoption fee of recent vitality autos is comparatively sluggish.

“We aspire for this analysis mission to take a number one position in encouraging the transport sector to embrace green technologies extra readily and contribute extra to lowering emissions and attaining carbon neutrality.”

The PolyU good solar-powered freezer truck is now prepared for commercialization, with the expectation that related autos will likely be launched within the near-future.