Shell Eco-marathon Europe 2008 – stretching fuel efficiency to its limits

In futuristic vehicles, entirely built by the students themselves, some 200 teams of college and university students will try to beat the record held by students of the Swiss Polytechnic Institute (ETH) in Zürich. This team managed to drive 3,836 kilometres per litre (km/L) in their vehicle in the Prototype category during the Shell Eco-marathon 2005.

Categories

There are two categories in the annual race: Prototypes and UrbanConcepts. The aim of the first is straightforward: drive as many kilometres as possible on
the small amount of fuel provided. The performance is converted to km/L afterwards; the contestants do not have to drive on until they’ve finished an entire litre of fuel. Neither do they all use the same fuel; they can choose between petrol, diesel, LPG or alternative energy sources such as biofuels, gas to liquids (GTL), hydrogen or solar energy.

In the second category, UrbanConcepts, vehicles must resemble city cars. In reality, though, you would be mad to drive one of the vehicles presented at the Midland circuit around even the least busy streets of any city. Most of them are lower than low and easily overlooked, and they do not come across as very solid structures.

Strategy
Most vehicles do not go very fast; they’re not supposed to. In fact, during the race, the cars are not
allowed to exceed an average speed of 25 km/h. At the test drive on 17 April, sixteen year old Joni Terpstra, chief engineer and one of the drivers for the LeekBurners, explains that many teams choose a strategy in which there is no engine friction most of the time: “They build up to their maximal speed and then simply shut off the engine.”

Youngsters
The LeekBurners themselves, a sympathetic young team, first time around, are not aiming for the high-score. They will be satisfied if their vehicle, which weighs an astonishing 90 kilograms, as opposed to the other vehicles’ meagre 30 kg, can go 100 km/L.

And there’s always the design award to be won, although the LeekBurners do not stand much of a chance at that either. The other young team, the Dutch painters, are specifically aiming for the design award, though. Last year their vehicle was based on Piet Mondrian’s Victory Boogie Woogie, this year they keep their design a secret until the very last moment. “But it’s got something to do with Van Gogh’s sunflowers”. The name of their vehicle, Tournesol, already gave away as much.

The Dutch painters are proud to have left behind many university teams last year when they managed to drive 250 km/L. Now they’re aiming for 400 km/L.

Record
The current record in UrbanConcepts is 557 km/L, established by the Dutch team of HydroCruisers of The Hague University/Academy of Engineering last year. The team – with new members – will be defending their record this year. They will be one of six Dutch teams participating in the eco-marathon.

The Dutch teams
These six teams will be representing the Netherlands in Nogaro:

• The Dutch painters, for the Hofstad Lyceum in The Hague
• Eco-runner Team Delft, for the Delft University of Technology
• The Hydro Cruisers, for The Hague University/Academy of Engineering

• Team Phidippides, for Rotterdam University
  

  

  Daniël Jansen, one of TU Delft's Eco-runners. Photo: MiM.

• The LeekBurners, for the Lindenborg Lyceum in Leek – no, they’re not using leek as biomass.
• Triple-X, for the Amsterdam Damstede

Ideological reasons?
Most Dutch participants are not in it for ideological reasons. “It’s nice to put to practice some of the theory we learn,” explains Eco-runner Daniël Jansen. As most of his team, he is a student of aerospace engineering. For most participants the race means a year of inspiring experimentation – and good cv building, of course.

For sponsor Shell, there’s more to it. It may surprise that a fuel company should sponsor a race to use as little fuel as possible, but Shell has a good reason for it: demand. The company hopes to be the leading provider of the next generation of fuels and fuel mixes. It is working closely with car makers, governments and others to develop and implement cleaner fuels and more efficient vehicles, to meet the ever increasing demand for fuel in this world.