EKoTech - A Holistic Approach to Reduce CO ₂ Emissions of Agricultural Machinery in Process Chains

Along with the European Union’s objective of further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, manufacturers of agricultural machines want to make their contribution and highlight potential fuel savings. The research project “EKoTech - Efficient fuel use in agricultural technology”, funded by the German Ministry of Agriculture, involves well-known manufacturers and research facilities. The essential objective of this project is to identify savings realized since 1990 and savings potentials until 2030. Further aims are the development of a method and a tool for the evaluation of efficiency measures in process chains and the formulation of recommendations for manufacturers, operators and research facilities.

A comprehensive search of fuel consumption and power requirement data of relevant machines and processes provides the database. Additionally typical region-specific operational structures, machine equipment and process chains define model farms. The dependencies between the increase of process efficiency and achieved quality are taken into account by means of a new developed so-called Qualified Efficiency. For the calculation of time-related fuel consumption and partial times of the machines in action, individual machine models and process models are being developed. Potential fuel saving and efficiency increasing measures in technical equipment as well as in operational and organisational processes will be identified and evaluated. The processed results will lead to recommendations of action.