The Sustainability of Integrating Contactless Occasional Charging in Electric Vehicle Material Handling

Abstract

Electric mobility has developed itself to an option to mitigate air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in cities same as in intralogistics material handling, while significant advances have been made in the research and development of electric vehicles (EV’s). Along with the major challenge of energy storage, another important factor is the efficient design of system energy supply, transfer and consumption. This has had the effect of fundamentally changing perspectives across the mobility and transportation sector.

The overarching aim of this research is to examine the impact and potential of using contactless occasional recharging for non-road Electric Vehicles (nrEV) integrated within a manufacturing line, recognising the need to balance the (sometimes competing) demands of delivering reliable and efficient production while respecting environmental and sustainable needs. The integration of a contactless charging infrastructure targets on a reliable energy supply in process inherent break times without changing or interrupting existing production processes.

The research investigations based on the Occasional Charging Station Location Model (OCSLM) provide a set of novel results in reference to the impact from interim battery charging to system`s overall sustainability. The application demonstrated a theoretical increase in usable battery energy of 40% to 60% while realising a reduction potential in battery capacity and system cost of between 5% to 45%. However, the use of contactless power transfer based on a standard energy mix resulted in an increase in CO2 emissions of up to 6.89% revealing a negative impact to overall ecology from the use of this energy transfer system.