+ Concept - Hybrid Semi Trailer Assist

A System to Make Semi Trucks more Efficient
What it is:

An add-on system for making semi-trailer trucks function as hybrids. A special trailer chassis and remote hybrid helper provide multiple levels of regenerative braking and energy storage. The stored energy is then used to boost fully loaded tractor trailer combos up hills, or to start-up in problem smog zones, such as port facilities, with reduced emissions. The system in one of several versions should provide increased fuel economy and reduced criteria pollutants by converting the energy lost in braking to energy for propulsion.

How it works:

Standard trailers used to haul intermodal containers are steel girder chassis with sets of tandem wheels. After offloading from ships or trains, containers are mated to the chassis, and a diesel powered semi-tractor unit couples on the chassis. In the HSTA concept, electric motor-generators are integrated into the trailer chassis’ tandem wheel axles. Similar to a hybrid car (Toyota Prius for example), the motor generators produce electricity via regenerative braking instead of normal friction brakes. A bank of batteries can be mounted under the trailer chassis (lots of room!) to store this energy.

When the truck/trailer combo needs to accelerate or go uphill, electric power flows from the batteries to the motors to provide some or all the power needed to propel the truck. The tractor’s diesel engine can be left at idle or even shut down until the batteries’ stored energy is drained. No modifications to the tractor other than perhaps some added control boxes are needed. So any of the hundreds of thousands of existing tractor trucks can become a hybrid by coupling up to one of these new modular chassis.

Adding a Helper

An alternative implementation of this idea is to duplicate or move the motors and batteries to a remote control guided helper vehicle. The remote hybrid helper vehicle, or”RHH”, couples to the rear of the trailer going either up or down hills, or in port facilities. On downhills the RHH’s motor/generators charge up it’s battery bank using regenerative braking, to be used to boost the trailer uphill, or from a stop. The unique twist is that the helper can decouple from the downhill bound vehicle after providing braking, and couple up to an uphill bound vehicle to push it up the hill.

Downhill link up: The Remote Hybrid Helper vehicle is guided
on auto pilot to link up to the rear of a semi with a hybrid chassis.


Downhill braking and charging: Motor generators on the RHH generate electricity via regenerative braking. The truck trailer can also generate power if suitably equipped. The electricity charges the batteries on the RHH.

At the bottom of the hill the RHH is released from the truck.


The RHH exits and returns to the opposite side for the next uphill trip.


Uphill pushing: The RHH now couples to an uphill bound semi truck with a compatible trailer. The RHH helps push the trailer and provides additional electricity to the trailer to power the motors.

The unique benefit is that the RHH is an exchange medium for collecting the potential energy of the downhill bound tractor-trailer combination, and handing it off to another uphill bound vehicle. And the vehicle itself doesn’t have to carry the cost and weight of the battery-motor system on long, flat runs where it might not provide any benefit. Further, in a dense transport environment like a port or city, the RHH vehicles could be charged up from the utility grid, and provide smog-free propulsion to get the semi-truck out on the open road. Of course, we'd want to have a high efficiency, low emission utility power plant powering the grid.

In some situations, both the RHH and HSTA technologies can be employed together, with the RHH providing power to the HSTA trailer.

+ The Greenest and Meanest cars of 2007

While looking for a topic about transportation, I found a website dedicated to providing consumers with information about green cars. Its called Greenercars.org. They provide consumers with the Green score rating of each car on the market; this score is based on fuel efficiency, city and highway mileage.

You can check out a list of the greenest cars from 2007,
And the environmental enemies as well.