Mustang Advanced Engineering (MAE) announced the installation of a heavy-duty chassis dynamometer at Aramco research and development center in Novi, Michigan.
Aramco‘s R&D efforts hope to accelerate the reduction of emissions and improve fuel efficiency in the transportation industry, while building partnerships with leading automakers worldwide, MAE says. Since 2010, Aramco has been researching mobile carbon capture as one such way of decreasing carbon emissions from internal combustion engine vehicles.
Aramco engaged MAE in the development of a chassis dynamometer that could accurately simulate the driving conditions for heavy-duty, class 8 trucks and buses with precise load control and repeatability. MAE delivered a custom designed MAE-7500-3K400-FAN-BG dynamometer, which was installed below ground. The dynamometer features (3) air-cooled eddy current power absorber units (PAUs) along with an inertia disc and (3) individual fans for those PAUs. MAE’s MAE-7500 series offers several levels of testing capabilities in a modular, compact package and with capabilities that can be upgraded.
Aramco mobile carbon capture research has seen on a smaller scale with pickup trucks and sedans a reduction of 25% of the CO2 compared to standard capture rates, MAE adds. The process involves a medium which naturally binds to the CO2 then is stripped, compressed and stored onboard the vehicle until it is offloaded. The potential for the CO2 solids to be re-used could be viewed as a possible raw material with value in other industries and processes, such as carbon cured concrete.
