Penn State’s EcoCAR2 to Rely in Part on Ethanol

Penn State’s next EcoCAR will run partly on the ethanol-based E85 fuel, the university Advanced Vehicle Team said Wednesday.

In an introductory gathering at the Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, the team announced its overall vision for EcoCAR2: Plugging into the Future.

The three-year national competition, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors, gives college engineering teams a chance to retool a stock Chevrolet Malibu for better fuel efficiency and emissions.

Teams won’t receive their Malibus from GM until June, but they’ve already spent months on modeling and simulations to prepare for the technical work.

‘The basics are done this year,’ said Taylor Kidd, an outreach-team member for Penn State’s EcoCAR2.

More design and mechanical work will extend through the next two years as the competition continues, with teams nationwide refining their designs and meeting for annual contests.

Kidd said the Penn State team settled on E85 because of its relatively light environmental impact. The team’s planned design is a plug-in hybrid model that can run both on an electrical charge from an outside source and on the ethanol fuel, she said.

The university Advanced Vehicle Design Team has partnered this year with Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities, a nonprofit group that supports alternative-fuel use and development. Its executive director, Rick Price, met with students Wednesday.

‘I believe some of the basic technologies they’re working on could eventually work their way into a commercial vehicle,’ he said in a brief interview.

Price said there’s ‘no one silver bullet’ for society in moving away from more petroleum-based fuels. The approach will require a variety of strategies, he said.

Other visitors to the EcoCAR event Wednesday included about 60 Park Forest Middle School students. They participated in a scavenger hunt and heard a presentation, among other activities.

In the last national EcoCAR competition, Penn State’s team placed fourth in the third and final year, in 2011. Its Chevrolet Equinox redesign for that contest relied on biodiesel as a key fuel.

Related coverage

• VIDEO: Penn State Preparing for Next EcoCAR Challenge (March 28, 2012)