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TTC: Electric and alternative fuel buses

New materials make supercapacitors better than batteries
Soon supercapacitors will compete head-on with batteries in far more applications

From link.

New materials coming on-stream within electronic supply channels stand to make supercapacitors better than batteries, according to a recent report from IDTechEx.

The report explains why supercapacitors and their variants still only constitute a modest business. However, it indicates that it is largely because the lithium-ion battery has improved so rapidly and plummeted in cost, keeping supercapacitors in niches such as best reliability, longest life and fastest charge-discharge, but only where poor energy storage and self-leakage are tolerable.

The report also shows that this is starting to change mainly thanks to totally new materials and formats, attracting the contribution of far more researchers and the world’s largest companies. Soon supercapacitors will compete head-on with batteries in far more applications but also “redefine the battlefield” to such things as edible and textile forms. The newly intense interest in faster charging and acceleration with electric vehicles and with creating bionic man and woman reads to the strengths of the new supercapacitors, leaving batteries “on the low ground”.

Key enabling technology

Toyota, Volkswagen, the $100bn CRRC in China and other giants now see supercapacitors as a potentially large market and key enabling technology in their cars, buses and so on and the medical industry has supercapacitors in their sights. Materials will control the necessary improvements in performance and cost.

Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx, says, “Supercapacitors will have physical capabilities such as stretchable, biocompatible and biodegradable, where batteries struggle. To meet batteries head-on, researchers promise energy density of lithium-ion batteries 12 years ago with most other parameters magnitudes better than even future batteries. Imagine a supercapacitor bus, that only needs to charge at the depot and does it in seconds. Indeed, some fit-and-forget supercapacitor buses in China are promoted as having no recycling or reuse issues from the supercapacitors at end of life – no valuable materials and no poisons. They do not yet have sufficiently long-range for mainstream use, but several research programs are getting them there.”

Das adds, “The trick is pivoting of supercapacitor research from flammable carcinogenic liquids touching burnt coconut shells, to such things as solid ionogels matched to graphene and carbon nanotube composites. That takes life beyond the current three times that of a lithium-ion battery to much more. An electric vehicle will have energy storage taking no weight or space because it has supercapacitor smart vehicle bodywork by Lamborghini, Geely, MIT, Imperial College London, a Japanese electronics giant and others optimizing, integrating and shaping the new materials. Add non-toxic flexible and stretchable medical implants and patches, some using supercapacitor feedstock cut to shape as needed. They call that “editable”. ”

New choice is hierarchical or exohedral

Increasing energy density involves maximizing useful electrode areas. Here the new choice is hierarchical or exohedral. Hierarchical refers to a monolithic material with a hierarchy of pore sizes as seen by the electrolyte. These electrode materials are currently made by pyrolysis of coconuts, melon rinds, wood, pine needles or fish scales to achieve various cost-performance compromises.

Exohedral refers to microscopic arrays of materials with wide-area surfaces, notably carbon allotropes like graphene and carbon nanotubes and recently other 2D materials such as metalorganic frameworks MOF in research. For both categories, rigorous synthesis may be too expensive in production. Carbon from carbide may also produce mixtures and impurities.

From link.

The new IDTechEx report, "Supercapacitor Materials and Formats 2020-2040", sees supercapacitors increasingly competing head-on with some lithium-ion batteries, such as giving ten times faster charging and life after tenfold increase in supercapacitor energy storage over today's figure. Others take medical and textile forms. See which giants now consider supercapacitors to be a potentially large market and key enabling technology in their cars, buses and trains, driven by new materials.

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Anecdotes I heard from staff were issues with achieving the promised range. But this was back when they were rush hour only, and in the winter. Now you see a number of New Flyer and Proterra buses out almost every hour of the day.

How big are the batteries on three buses they procured? Because there are plenty of options. And maybe that experience drives a larger battery requirement.
 
What sorts of problems are they having? And is it across the board or with some models?
The Flyers don't seem reliable enough. You can tell simply by noticing a certain unit would be in service for a few days and disappear for weeks. With 25 of them received and around 18 of them in service, they barely get 8 of them in service.

Last CEO report noted that aren't as reliable as the hybrids. Plus with their range limitation, it makes sense to procure hybrid buses for the majority of the replacements till BEBs improve.
 
^The other properties around the GTA who had plans to try electrics were more cautious, and specified on-street charging.

Maybe TTC only learns the hard way.

- Paul
 
^The other properties around the GTA who had plans to try electrics were more cautious, and specified on-street charging.

Maybe TTC only learns the hard way.

- Paul
Every system I have seen, they have on street charging stations.

Indianapolis is requiring BYD to installed more chargers on the Green BRT Line and the other 2 BRT line will have more chargers as well when built
 
How big are the batteries on three buses they procured? Because there are plenty of options. And maybe that experience drives a larger battery requirement.
I’m not sure about the TTC’s buses specifically. But I do believe at the time the hey ordered them, Proterra offered a 660 kWh battery.

The last 15 New Flyer and 15 Proterra buses have roof charging rails. Could be used with overhead charging in the garage, but I’m assuming it could also mean they can be charged en route in the future.
 
I’m not sure about the TTC’s buses specifically. But I do believe at the time the hey ordered them, Proterra offered a 660 kWh battery.

The last 15 New Flyer and 15 Proterra buses have roof charging rails. Could be used with overhead charging in the garage, but I’m assuming it could also mean they can be charged en route in the future.
On street charging isn't the solution for the TTC. If they need to be charged every hour, then they'll need chargers at both ends of the routes. Unfortunately TTC has a lot of routes with multiple branches so the cost will be high plus buses can't short turn on these busy routes.
 
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Norwegian Taxis, Wirelessly Charging While They Wait for a Fare
Electric Jaguars in Oslo, using tech from a former NASA architect, will soon be able to recharge on special pads embedded under the road.


The Jaguar I-Pace. Oslo will soon have two dozen I-Pace taxis that can charge wirelessly

The Jaguar I-Pace. Oslo will soon have two dozen I-Pace taxis that can charge wirelessly Credit...Jaguar
By Jamie Lincoln Kitman

  • Aug. 13, 2020
·
Starting next year, two dozen specially outfitted electric Jaguar taxis will roam the streets of the very green capital of Norway. And when they are idling at special taxi lines, they will be able to be recharged from the ground up.
This new program in Oslo would be the world’s first, and it brings together a British carmaker, a leading Nordic charge-point company and a former NASA architect who grew up in the Marlboro public housing project near Coney Island.

“In the building where a sniper shot from the roof in ‘The French Connection,’” said the NASA alumnus, Andrew Daga, referring to the 1971 police drama with a memorable car chase.

Today Mr. Daga is the chief executive of Momentum Dynamics in Malvern, Pa. The company, which he co-founded in 2009 with a focus on advanced electric vehicle charging, has been tapped to supply components that, beginning in the first quarter of 2021, will power 25 electric Jaguar I-Pace models for Cabonline/NorgesTaxi in Oslo. Inductive charge pads and associated equipment supplied by Momentum will be placed upon and beneath road surfaces at selected taxi queues, enabling fast, hands-off charging for the I-Pace.

Norwegian lawmakers concerned about carbon emissions have mandated the world’s most rapid transition to electric vehicles; now, with generous tax incentives, the oil-rich country on the North Sea has a car market with the world’s highest percentage of electric sales. Battery electric vehicles captured nearly 50 percent of the market through June, compared with about 2 percent in the United States. Norway is also one of the most successful markets for the roomy I-Pace, which was introduced as a 2019 model (and retails in America for $71,000 and up). Oslo’s ambitious ElectriCity program envisions the city’s taxi ranks filled exclusively with electric vehicles by 2024.

“We think that wireless charging is a potential game-changer,” said Sture Portvik, a manager for electromobility in the Oslo city government, “and we are happy to assist by helping taxi drivers keep moving and not adding cable clutter to the city. By improving infrastructure and providing better charging to the taxi industry, we are confident that by 2024 all taxis in Oslo will be zero emission.”

At current power levels, likely to increase significantly in the next few years, 15 minutes of charging on the Oslo pads will add 50 miles to the cars’ range. With frequent but brief stops during the day, the cars will rarely be fully charged but should always be charged enough.

Andrew Daga, chief executive of Momentum Dynamics, at the company’s in-progress headquarters in Malvern, Pa.

Andrew Daga, chief executive of Momentum Dynamics, at the company’s in-progress headquarters in Malvern, Pa.Credit...Hannah Yoon for The New York Times

“That’s the big idea,” Mr. Daga, 61, said. “You don’t need to fill a battery to 100 percent or even 80 percent. You just need to add another 20 percent from wherever you start and you just frequently recharge.

“It’s a concept referred to as grazing rather than guzzling — a partial charge here followed by another partial charge somewhere else and at the end of the day, you can stay in business 24/7,” he continued. “Convenience is a factor, but efficiency is the point.”

Morgan Lind, the chief operating officer of Recharge Infra, a division of the leading Nordic charging company Fortum, called it “the perfect charging technology.”

“It is plainly there without anyone having to change, understand, learn or do,” he added.

Ancillary benefits are substantial, too. They include eliminating conventional charge points, which hog sidewalk space, and extending life for batteries and system components that, thanks to being underground, won’t be exposed to the elements. And because of their convenient locations and short-burst charging, there will be less downtime, music to the ears of fleet owners and taxi drivers alike. Software developed by Momentum will enable monthly billing to note each charging event.



Electric vehicles at free public chargers in Oslo. Battery electric vehicles captured nearly 50 percent of the country’s car market through June.

Electric vehicles at free public chargers in Oslo. Battery electric vehicles captured nearly 50 percent of the country’s car market through June. Credit...Thomas Haugersveen for The New York Times

Mr. Daga’s company began supplying systems for electric bus trials in four American cities in 2015, and started work recently with a major European manufacturer on an urban delivery truck program. Meanwhile, a new engineering collaboration is underway with the Chinese E.V. engineering powerhouse Geely, owner of Volvo, Lotus and the London Electric Vehicle Company (the former London Taxi International), though Mr. Daga was mum on details.

With few competitors as yet, Mr. Daga anticipates they will arrive. “One company won’t be responsible for setting that up for the entire planet,” he said. However, his expansionist faith lies in his belief in the strength of his closely held company’s patents and the observation that “everything that moves — from people to parcels and packages, laundry and lobsters — has to be moved by something that has wheels, whether it’s a forklift or a truck or even a train.” And all those wheels will need power.

The lofty hope is that the new system will prove the efficacy of a wireless charging infrastructure and will be deployed virtually anywhere, speeding the adoption of electric vehicles, which many see as a key element in the decarbonization of transportation.

Mr. Daga and Momentum are building a new 90,000-square-foot headquarters in Malvern and planning to double staff to over 100 people in 2021. The Oslo program is more than a proof of concept for this company: It is the first commercial application of Momentum’s technology and the realization of a dream almost a dozen years in the making.

“There was never a question in my mind in the entire period since that this was the right thing to do,” Mr. Daga said. “It was almost a mission that I was on.”

Mr. Daga moved as a teenager from Brooklyn — an alumnus of Public School 95 — to Ithaca, N.Y., where his Italian father, a waiter, opened a popular restaurant, the Elba Kitchen. He studied architecture at Cornell, but his father’s death led him to transfer to Temple University in Philadelphia. After Mr. Daga graduated in the early 1980s, NASA approached him, and before long he was working on the International Space Station.



An electric bus charging wirelessly during a route stop in Wenatchee, Wash.

An electric bus charging wirelessly during a route stop in Wenatchee, Wash. Credit...Momentum Dynamics

Momentum’s essential breakthrough came from Mr. Daga’s encounter with a Bucknell University electrical engineering professor, Bruce Long, with whom he would found the company. Mr. Long, who died in 2018, had developed crucial wireless charging knowledge while working in Antarctica on missions to measure the movement and depth of the continent’s glaciers for Pennsylvania State University’s geophysics program.

“One of the things that you need in Antarctica is a means of powering electronic devices without opening their cases, because the blowing snow will get into the case if you open it,” Mr. Daga said. “So Bruce had been thinking about wireless power for some time and applied it to our program, but at a much, much higher power level than he’d originally conceived. That was the kernel of the intellectual property, and it began to grow from there. Now we’ve got a bit of a forest.”

Power Up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/business/jaguar-i-pace-oslo-taxis-charging.html?searchResultPosition=1
 

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The TTC has commenced testing all three types of electric buses with simulated loads (9000 lbs of water) and simulated service. Was tipped off they’d be shadowing the 43 today and caught them in Agincourt this morning.

Road to electric by Adrian Badaraco, on Flickr
Whats the point in all this when theyve been in revenue service for months in which more accurate load data has been given? Not to mention wouldnt this have been done a long time ago by manufacturer? Seems like wasted exercise.
 
Whats the point in all this when theyve been in revenue service for months in which more accurate load data has been given? Not to mention wouldnt this have been done a long time ago by manufacturer? Seems like wasted exercise.
I’m guessing this gives them a more fair comparison between all three different types.
 
The TTC has commenced testing all three types of electric buses with simulated loads (9000 lbs of water) and simulated service. Was tipped off they’d be shadowing the 43 today and caught them in Agincourt this morning.


Road to electric
by Adrian Badaraco, on Flickr
The TTC has the most waterbeds in the city not belonging to waterbed manufacturers or waterbed retailers.
 
Whats the point in all this when theyve been in revenue service for months in which more accurate load data has been given? Not to mention wouldnt this have been done a long time ago by manufacturer? Seems like wasted exercise.
I totally disagree. Unless you pit the buses at the same time in the same condition (geography, load, traffic, weather, AC on/off) on the exact same route, you can't say which one is better under what conditions. Every route has a different performance thus you can't say what is better when you compare route "apples" to route "oranges". Since they are based from different garages, there haven't been a true competitive data.

Different manufacture tests on different condition to showcase the best scenario for their product. How can one even consider manufacture's words as truth? That's just naive to assume so. As for control tests by a 3rd party, they could cheat like VW did.

Besides, whats the point of buying from all 3 if they can just read some specs and decide based on possibly misleading manufacture info and pick one.
 
Whats the point in all this when theyve been in revenue service for months in which more accurate load data has been given?

Looks straight forward to me. They likely sent feedback to the manufacturers based on revenue service and the manufacturer who was "behind" and not going to receive an order for 2000+ units ($1.5B over a 10 year period) complained the test was unfair in some way.

This is the TTC either learning their testing was unbalanced or unfair, or eliminating a lawsuit when they disqualify a vendor due to technical non-compliance despite the manufacturer spec stating otherwise.
 
^Data on how the units‘ performance during a structured test on Toronto roads compares with the less structured in-service performance is good data, and likely valuable learning.

Hmmm......Three brightly coloured environmentally-friendly competitors following each other up and down a set course of roads in a dramatic contest of willpower and endurance....think of it as the TTC’s little contribution to the Tour de France.

- Paul
 

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