The winners of the Helios Prize (Department of Engineering) – awarded for graduate research in sustainable energy or energy efficiency
The Helios Prize, Department of Engineering (University of Cambridge) was awarded to Matteo Craglia, for his research in energy efficiency in the transport sector. Matteo is supervised by Dr Jonathan Cullen and won the prize for his paper: Do technical improvements lead to real efficiency gains? Disaggregating changes in transport energy intensity.
Abstract
Fuel economy standards are a key measure to increase the rate of efficiency improvements in passenger cars. The fuel consumption of vehicles can be improved in three ways: incremental technical efficiency improvements within powertrain technologies, market shifts to more efficient types of powertrains and by limiting increases in the size and performance of vehicles. This study quantifies the effect of each of these three drivers on the fuel consumption of British vehicles between 2001 and 2018 using driver-reported data on real-world fuel consumption. Analysis shows the introduction of EU fuel economy standards in 2008/09 had little effect on the rate of real technical efficiency improvements in British vehicles. Instead of adopting technical improvements at a higher rate or limiting the size and power of vehicles, these results suggest vehicle manufacturers met emissions standards by increasing the divergence between laboratory tests and real-world fuel consumption. This study adds to the growing literature calling for official test procedures to be representative of real-world driving.
The runner-up, Krishan Chana, at the Whittle Laboratory, was recognised for his paper The Effect of Reaction on Compressor Performance which he presented at the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) IGTI Conference.
Read the full Department of Engineering, University of Cambrdge's article.