2008 Transportation News & Highlights

French Auto Industry Visits Center for Transportation Research

Kentucky Government Officials View Argonne Battery, Transportation Technology Projects

November 5, 2008 -- Governor Steve Beshear of Kentucky, members of the Kentucky government, and Kentucky university officials visited Argonne’s battery materials and vehicle systems groups, among others, on November 5, 2008. The visitors explored collaborative opportunities with Argonne during their stay. More...

TRACC Studies on Flooded Bridges Can Help Communities

November 2008 -- Led by Argonne National Laboratory engineer Tanju Sofu, TRACC analysts and FWHA’s Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC) are currently evaluating the hydrodynamics of submerged bridge decks using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. More...

USCAR Directors Visit TTRDC

October 30, 2008 -- The USCAR Directors visited Argonne's Transportation Technology R&D Center (TTRDC) on October 30 and 31, 2008. USCAR is the Department of Energy's (DOE's) partner in the FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership. This visit highlighted Argonne's innovative projects, facilities, capabilities and expertise. More...

EcoCAR Excitement Intensifies at Fall Workshop

October, 2008 -- Student teams are buzzing with talk of what vehicle architecture each will choose for EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge competition.  Nearly 200 students from seventeen North American universities gathered in Detroit to expand on what they learned from last month’s intense five-day kick-off workshop, an introductory training course in Boston. More...

Argonne teams with Chicago research universities to form Illinois Center for Advanced Tribology

October 30, 2008 -- The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has teamed with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Northwestern University to form the Illinois Center for Advanced Tribology (ICAT), which will develop solutions to technical issues related to transportation, health and systems that operate in extreme environments. View Tribology Brochure. More on this story...

Report: Full Fuel Cycle Comparison of Forklift Propulsion Systems

View report.

'Omnivorous engine' hopes to run on many fuels

Sept. 5, 2008 -- The “omnivorous engine” is no picky eater. Gasoline? Down the hatch. Ethanol? Butanol? It'll slurp those up too. The creators of the omnivorous engine, engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, seek to fashion an engine that can run on just about any type of spark-ignited fuel. More... View Factsheet.

U.S.-Sweden Joint PHEV Research

September 2008 -- Looking to jointly develop new plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) technology and accelerate its consumer acceptance and commercialization, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Sweden signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in July for a one year, $1 million cost-sharing agreement to be equally funded by DOE and the Swedish Energy Agency. More...

TRACC Featured in Argonne Now

Read about the Transportation Research and Analysis Computing Center (TRACC) in Argonne Now. More...

Nebraska’s PBS station visits Argonne to discuss Alternative Fuel Technologies

View "Alternative Fuels" a video created by Net Television, Nebraska's PBS Station. More...

PBS's MotorWeek visits Argonne's Transportation Technology R&D Center

View video.

Integrated Fuel Technologies gets worldwide license for Argonne-developed Diesel DeNOx Catalyst

July 1, 2008 -- A new, patented catalyst developed by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory to reliably and economically reduce 95 to 100 percent of the nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from diesel-fueled engines has been licensed to Integrated Fuel Technologies, Inc. (IFT), a start-up company based in Kirkland, Wash. More...

ARDAQ provides onboard data collection and diagnostics of PHEVs

July 2008 --A group of Argonne engineers have strengthened the lab's capability to analyze and evaluate the performance of prototype plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) with the development of a tool called the Argonne Real-Time Data Acquisition (ARDAQ) system. More...

Argonne's GREET model impacts alternative fuel racing in the ALMS Green Challenge

Statement of Alexander Karsner, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy Before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate

June 12, 2008 -- DOE/EERE Assistant Secretary Karsner references Argonne’s GREET work in Congressional testimony. More...

Argonne partners with Delphi on inverter

June 2008 — Argonne is part of a Delphi Corp.-led team that has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop the next-generation propulsion inverter for hybrid vehicles, according to an announcement by Delphi earlier this week. More...

Argonne hosts foreign journalists

May 28, 2008 -- Argonne's Transportation Technology R&D Center hosted a group of foreign journalists on Wednesday, May 28. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Foreign Press Center in Washington, D.C., 18 foreign journalists toured the battery and fuel cell laboratories in Building 205, and the Advanced Powertrain Research Facility in Building 371. More...

Argonne National Laboratory Develops Powertrain System Analysis Toolkit with MathWorks Tools

Engineers building next-generation fuel cell, hybrid electric, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles must optimize fuel economy and performance while containing development costs. To meet these goals, they need to simulate multiple powertrain configurations without building costly physical prototypes. In response to this need, Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) collaborated with leading auto-makers to develop the Powertrain System Analysis Toolkit (PSAT). More...

Mississippi State University Wins DOE and GM Challenge X 2008 Advanced Vehicle Competition

May 14, 2008 -- U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman announced on May 14, 2008, that Mississippi State University in Starkville, Miss. is the first place winner of Challenge X, in which 17 university teams from across the U.S. and Canada competed to reengineer a General Motors (GM) Chevrolet Equinox Crossover SUV with advanced powertrain configurations. The winner of the competition achieved high fuel economy and low emissions, all while maintaining driver comfort and vehicle performance. More...

Newest GREET model updates impacts of latest fuels and vehicle technologies

May 8, 2008 -- The newest version of the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) model from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory will provide researchers with even more tools to evaluate and compare the environmental impacts of new transportation fuels and advanced vehicle technologies. More...

Reports on advanced vehicle technology at three international auto shows

April 2008 — Argonne also produces reports and presentations on the environmental highlights of the major international auto shows, focusing on electric, hybrid, fuel cell and hydrogen technology. More..

Li-Ion battery technology to be commercialized by Japan's Toda Kogyo

March 13, 2008 — The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and Toda Kogyo Corp. of Japan have reached a world-wide licensing agreement for the commercial production and sales of Argonne's patented composite cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. More...

TRACC Opens Its Doors for Business

March 5, 2008 — Argonne National Laboratory, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation's Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), has announced the opening of the Transportation Research and Analysis Computing Center (TRACC). More...