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www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, May 13, 2010 · 10 Oakville firm keeps zero emissions car project running By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF A team of about 50 students at the University of Waterloo has developed a zero emissions car with an Oakville company supplying cooling technology for the vehicle's complicated powertrain. The car is one of the world's first hydrogen fuel-cell plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (FC-PHEV). The team is one of 16 university student teams entered in the North Americawide EcoCAR Challenge. The powertrain includes a hydrogen fuel cell system and an electric motor, which is charged by electrical outlet, sending power to the wheels. Drawing of Waterloo EcoCAR Because of the complicated electrical components conventional radiators and cooling systems, used in combustion engines, are not effective in this vehicle. To address the cooling challenges Oakville-based Dana Canada Corporation stepped in and supplied the team of student engineers with the cooling products need- ed to keep the car running. "The challenges with keeping the electronics and the battery cool in very hot environments like Arizona, where we will be testing, are very great," said team member and spokesperson Eric Mallia. "They're very daunting challenges." To help overcome those challenges the team has designed cooling products, which Oakville's Dana produced and shipped to the student team. Mike Martin, program manager for emerging technologies at Dana, who was dealing with the student team, said his company has worked with the alternative fuels team at the university before, when asked why Dana became involved. "We are doing a lot of work here in the company on emerging alternate fueling technologies," he said. "We do a lot of work in cooling of batteries and this is just one more way for us to have access to vehicles like this and to get our technologies into the field and into real vehicles which will be undergoing real tests." The company also employs many former Waterloo students. The University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT) has developed the vehicle. The team consists of some 40 to 50 undergrad students and another six grad students, most of them engineers. The project is in the second of three years in the EcoCAR competition. There were also challenges involved with producing the required cooling products. "It's a unique construction of a battery box that needs the cooling," Martin said. "It's not the size or shape of a traditional heat exchanger or traditional heat exchange product, so it's not something that's commercially available, nor is it something that we have in our commercial portfolio. We had to take the student design and try to manufacture it using our process." After several trials the product was completed within a few months. Mallia said the vehicle is capable of making short daily trips on just the electric motor and would require the hydrogen power for longer trips. The car has not yet been fully tested, so he has no information on how far it can travel, though variables can change the outcome greatly. He said maximum distance could be affected by such things as how it is driven (driver aggression) and the environment it is driven in (hilly roads). Testing will be done in Yuma, Arizona this month when the 16 enrolled teams will be judged on their vehicles. Only one other team has produced a hydrogen powered vehicle. The first year of the competition was design, the second and current year is development of the vehicles and the final year will focus on optimization of the automobiles. Mallia said that, though the car produces no pollution itself, there are emissions. There are emissions associated with the electricity used to charge the vehicle so the cleanliness of the electrical source is the determinant of how much the car pollutes. Because the hydrogen is mixed with outside air to create power, the two elements (hydrogen and oxygen) create water, which is the only substance that comes out of the tailpipe of the vehicle. There are numerous companies, along with Dana, that have been involved with the production of the vehicle. The hydrogen is donated to the team, and the car, a Chevrolet crossover vehicle, was donated by General Motors. The student team entirely stripped down the Chevy's powertrain and built and installed its own. What makes the cooling of this vehicle so difficult is its complicated powertrain. Hydrogen fuel cell systems run relatively cool compared to combustion engines, which makes cooling a challenge because radiators are more effective at dissipating heat, when the liquid cooling is done at a higher temperature. Another challenge is to keep the lithium-ion batteries for the electric motor cool. The batteries get very hot and increase in temperature greatly under a heavy load. To alleviate the problems Dana has donated several liquid cooling plates and large and small radiators to cool the hydrogen fuel cell system and batteries. OVER 60,000 SATISFIED CUSTOMERS BEAT THE HST! HURRY GOV REBATE ENDS SOON 9 Locations To Serve You Better! *Call Dealer for Details *See dealer # Best Price # Best Service for details # Same Day Installation Available # Eligible for O.P.A. & Government Rebate THE BIGGEST SALE EVER $ 500 OFF 905-849-4998 www.aireone.com 1-888-827-2665 A+ Rating