Retrofittable Regenerative Braking in Heavy Vehicle Applications

This paper describes a retrofittable kinetic energy regeneration technology for converting internal combustion engined heavy vehicles used in fuel-inefficient urban stop-start driving, such as refuse trucks and school buses, to hybrid functionality. Such vehicles would benefit most from a hybrid conversion that, together with lowering fuel consumption, reduces foundation brake friction material wear because a large proportion of kinetic energy normally dissipated as heat via the brakes passes through the recovery system for conversion to electric power. Although production hybrid heavy vehicles are being introduced their cost is excessively high and millions of retrofittable conventional vehicles are likely to be manufactured for years to come.