Press Release.
Sustainability prize for Krone ‘recuperation’ trailer
Munich/Werlte, 22nd November 2013 – Krone was awarded with the “European Transport Prize for Sustainability 2014”. Dr. Frank Albers, Krone Sales Manager received the prize from the publisher Huss (Munich) in the “refrigerated vehicle” category for the Cool Liner with recuperation technology.
“Efficiency and sustainability are subjects that we focus on in particular,” emphasised Albers in his acceptance speech. “The innovation related to aerodynamics, recuperation and telematics uses various means to enable the time and energy consumption of the trailers to be significantly reduced. We are working intensively on this and are delighted that our approach has been rewarded with the sustainability prize,” continued Mr. Albers.
The prize-winning trailer enables Krone to research the extent to which recovered braking energy can be used to operate energy- consuming components on the trailer. As part of the research project a refrigerated trailer was built that uses the recuperation principle.
Braking energy is converted into electrical energy and can supply given components in the trailer. With a traditional brake, the kinetic or motion energy of the vehicle is converted to heat using friction and is then lost into the environment. This is different for a so-called regenerative or recuperation brake, which could be used in the future on the Krone Cool Liner to operate the refrigeration mechanism. : A part of the energy that is released when the trailer’s brakes are applied is captured using axle generators and converted to electrical energy.
In addition to Bernard Krone, the Institute for Mobile Machines and Commercial Vehicles at Braunschweig Technical University, Gigant Trenkamp & Gehle GmbH, Krebs und Aulich GmbH, NavCert GmbH and WiTech Engineering GmbH are also involved in the research project.
