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Automotive Industry

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Automotive Design & Production, Jan, 2003 by Christopher A. Sawyer

The keys to the future of personal mobility, Ford believes, can be found in its Model U concept SUV. Brimming with safety and electronic technologies, the vehicle also makes an attempt to chart a course toward the everyday use of hydrogen as a fuel, and the creation of materials and processes that lessen the automobile's environmental impact.

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"If Henry Ford was to look at a modern-day vehicle," says Laurens van den Acker, chief designer, Ford Advanced Design, "the only thing that truly would surprise him would be the electronics." Van den Acker is the designer of the Model U, a research concept vehicle created to showcase near-term and long-term technologies, including the first steps toward the creation and use of sustainable materials in automotive manufacture. It encompasses a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine supplemented by a hybrid-electric drive system, a voice activation system utilizing conversational speech instead of set commands, active safety equipment, and slots that turn the vehicle interior into a giant plug-and-play port. It's an intriguing view of the future.

GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT

The Model U's soft roof panel employs a fabric from Miliken Automotive built around Poly-lactic Acid (PLA), a corn-based feedstock. The same basic material also is used for the seats, carpet, instrument panel, door trim and arm rests. Says Ravi Vijayaraghavan. technical specialist, Ford Scientific Research Laboratory, "When you start with a corn-based fabric like this, the ultimate goal is to be able to compost it at the end of its life in order to grow new crops for more material." But won't the materials degrade in use? "You need certain conditions for composting," says Vijayaraghavan, "including the addition of microbes, high temperature and humidity." Spilling a juice box on a hot day won't start the process.

The same thinking went into the thermoset exterior panels which--like the seating foam--use polyester resins partially derived from soy beans. The panels are covered in a UV-cure paint developed by Akzo Nobel designed to reduce volatile organic compounds (VOCs), the size of the paint shop, and the amount of energy needed to dry the finish.

Other materials of note are the Goodyear tires--related to those used on some models of the European Ford Fiesta--that use corn starch in place of carbon-black filler, and the 5W-20 engine oil supplied by Penzoil with a sunflower oil base. Yet the Model U isn't a refugee from a cooking show, or the vehicle of choice for folks stranded on a desert isle. It is a drivable concept, one actually based on the Focus platform.

HYDROGEN POWER WITHOUT THE FUEL CELL

"The internal combustion engine works today, the customer benefits are there, and they are recognizable," says Gerhard Schmidt, Ford's vice president, Research and Advanced Engineering. "And with the shift to hydrogen fuel, it could come down to a race between a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine [H2 ICE in Ford-speak] and the fuel cell, with the former acting as a bridging technology for many years." That is why, when you open the hood of the Model U, you will find a rather nondescript internal combustion engine staring back at you. Only this engine has a little something up its sleeve.

The Model U's 2.3-liter Duratec HE four-cylinder has been upgraded with high-compression pistons, a redesigned intake manifold, two intercoolers (one air-to-air unit behind the front fascia and a second air-to-air conditioning piece in the engine compartment), a Vortech centrifugal supercharger, dual fuel rails, hydrogen-tolerant fuel injectors, and an Aston Martin V12-sourced coil-on-plug ignition system. "The engine is running a 12.2:1 compression ratio," says Bob Natkin, senior technical specialist, Advanced Spark Ignited Engine Powertrain and Vehicle Research Lab, "and produces 88 kW." Similar engines without the supercharger produced 35% less low-end torque and 50% less top-end power than their gasolinefueled cousins, a performance Natkin stresses was "unacceptable."

As the engine is further developed, Natkin says boost will rise from its current 13 psi level to nearly 16 psi, and the supercharger will be replaced by an electronically control led turbocharger. Moving the 30 pounds of air per minute through the supercharger eats up 30 hp, with mechanical losses from the crank-driven device adding another 10%. Granted, a turbocharger has some uncoupled friction to overcome, but it uses waste exhaust energy to provide boost; an important consideration in a clean, high efficiency engine.

"The dual fuel rails act like primaries and secondaries on an old four-barrel carburetor," says Natkin, "with the ability to get super high flow by kicking the low-flow rails back in if necessary." Because there's no carbon in the fuel, the hydrocarbon and co emissions are below the strictest regulations, while C[O.sub.2] emissions--which aren't regulated--are at 1.5 grams/mile, well below the 350 gram/mile produced by the average car. The only remaining emission is NOx, and since the Model U runs a lean fuel calibration, engine-out NOx levels are already 50% to 75% lower than for a gasoline engine. Work with EGR and catalysts should allow Model U to comfortably undercut SULEV emission levels.

Automotive Industry

It's all about

Automotive Design & Production, Jan, 2003 by Christopher A. Sawyer

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