Analysis of a Parallel Hybrid Electric Tractor for Agricultural Applications

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 12; p. 3055
• Main Authors: Mocera, Francesco, Somà, Aurelio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2020
• Subjects: Agricultural equipment; Agricultural management; Agriculture; Air pollution; Architecture; Diesel engines; Emissions; Energy management; Environmental impact; hybrid electric tractor; hybrid electric vehicles; Manufacturers; Mathematical models; non-road mobile machineries; Numerical models; numerical simulation; Outdoor air quality; Pollutants; Powertrain; Task complexity; Vehicles
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en13123055

The field of Non-Road Mobile Machineries (NRMM) is now more than ever considering the adoption of electric systems to reduce the amount of pollutant emissions per unit of work. However, the intensity and complexity of the tasks performed by a working machine during its life is an obstacle to the widespread adoption of electric systems. Specific design solutions are required to properly split the power output of the hybrid powertrain among the different loads (wheel, power take off, hydraulic tools, etc.). In this work, a performance analysis between a traditional agricultural tractor and a proposed hybrid electric architecture of the same vehicle is shown. The comparison was performed on a set of tasks characterized on a real orchard tractor which were used to build the input signals of two different numerical models: one for the traditional diesel architecture and the other for the hybrid electric solution. The two models were tested with the same operating tasks to have a one to one comparison of the two architectures. Peak power capabilities of the hybrid solution and performance of the Load Observer energy management strategy were investigated to validate the feasibility of the proposed solution.