Scottish company claims hybrid breakthrough

With its eye simply on achieving a 30 per cent reduction of CO₂ emissions on the highway, a Scottish company may have actually doubled the miles per gallon of internal combustion engines.

Edinburgh, Scotland-based Artemis Intelligent Power, a privately owned company, has unveiled a new hydraulic hybrid powertrain for vehicles based on its Digital Displacement (DD) technology, a core innovation the company has been developing for nearly 15 years.

In confirmed third-party tests, the U.K. Energy Saving Trust, a grant supplier for the project, says Artemis’ prototype BMW 530i hydraulic series hybrid, outfitted with HEDDAT (High Efficiency Digital Displacement Automotive Transmission) technology performed with double the MPG in city tests (a start and stop environment) of the same car with a manual transmission.

Check out a video of the BMWi 530 in motion here >>

Additionally, Artemis and the Energy Saving Trust say the performance of the BMW prototype, including highway driving, revealed 30 per cent lower CO₂ emissions before the company fitted the hydraulic transmission.

Dr. Niall Caldwell, a senior engineer with the company since its inception in 1994, told the Cleantech Group it's difficult to compare the performance of a Artemis hydraulic transmission to the technology of an electric hybrid.

“Whenever there’s a lot of starting and stopping, that’s where we’ll beat electric hybrids,” said Caldwell. “We can store energy at a faster rate.”

In the simplest terms, the company claims its Digital Displacement technology replaces the port and swash plates in conventional hydraulic machines with computer-controlled high speed solenoid valves.

Artemis says this new hydraulic transmission technology is potentially more durable, lighter and cheaper than electric hybrids, and most vehicles will likely see substantially better fuel savings.

Theoretically, Caldwell also says the DD technology will be less expensive than a traditional hybrid once it’s mass-manufactured.

Current hybrid owners often complain they do not realize significant expected gas savings from their cars, but Artemis says that's because their owners drive their vehicles too aggressively.

“We have the advantage on aggressive duty cycles, and that’s where the Prius system cannot capture and return the energy at high powers,” said Caldwell. “There’s an intrinsic technological advantage when you’re driving a vehicle hard. That’s where hydraulic hybrids have a huge advantage.”

Artemis says it already has licensing contracts with Bosch Rexroth, a Bosch company, and Sauer-Danfoss APS, both of which are international manufacturers.

Bosch Rexroth plans to use the company’s DD technology in on-highway vehicles, and Sauer-Danfross says it will use the hydraulic systems in its construction, agricultural and handling machinery.

In an interview with Cleantech Group, Caldwell was reluctant to provide a timeframe for when heavy commercial machines might be outfitted with DD technology, he suggested it would be within the next ten years, and confirmed that Bosch Rexroth is currently working developing on heavy duty vehicles in Germany and the U.S.

“Things move relatively quickly in the market for delivery trucks and buses compared to mass market automobiles, which work on a longer development timescale which can typically take 7-10 years,” said Caldwell. “The larger vehicles are quick to market because they are made in smaller numbers.”

Hydraulic hybrid technology has been around for quite some time. Currently companies such as Deluge, Hybra Drive Systems and Next Energy are working on developing the technology, in addition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which Caldwell says he’s skeptical about.

“There’s a big buzz on hydraulic hybrids, but the weak point is that they haven’t made a fundamental technical improvement to make it work right,” said Caldwell.

The company, which was initially a spin out of the University of Edinburgh in 1994, has slowly been developing its hydraulic technology over the years to prove that hydraulic machines could effectively work at high speed and under high pressure.

Privately funded and employee owned, the company receives funding from licensing agreements with companies like Bosch Rexroth and Sauer-Danfoss.

“We’ve never gotten into the market of selling chunks of the company,” said Caldwell. “We’ve managed to cultivate income streams organically and are basically breaking even at the end of the year.”

According to Caldwell, Artemis likes to fly under the radar.

“We keep a very low profile. Until our technology is ready, we don’t tend to make a lot of noise about it.

The company has maintained over 30 per cent annual growth for each year in the past five years.

Caldwell says Artemis is currently speaking with investors to raise capital to continue developing their hydraulic technology, based on DD, to replace the gear boxes in wind turbines."

Caldwell wasn’t able to specify Artemis’ funding goal, but did say the company was hoping “to finalize funding in the near term.”

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