Grantham Scholar Teng Zhang aims to use electric cars to integrate the whole electrified transportation network for improving the energy efficiency.
Due to the global fossil fuel scarcity and environmental pollution, electrified transportation, including electric cars, trams, or metro, is in favour in modern cities. Because of the consequential enormous electricity consumption, improving the energy efficiency of the system becomes crucial.
This PhD project focuses on the tram network. When a tram accelerates, a huge amount of electricity is needed. When a tram brakes, part of its kinetic energy is recovered into electricity. This produced electricity will be sent back to the catenary and can be used for powering other trams’ acceleration. If the produced electricity is not used in time, it will be dissipated as heat in the resistor and wasted.
But if a tram network is connected to electric cars undergoing charging, trams may be able to charge the cars with their unutilized braking energy and draw the electricity from the electric cars to power their acceleration. This project will test the technical and economic feasibility of this approach and aims to use the electric cars to integrate the whole electrified transportation network for improving the energy efficiency.
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