Using electrified hydraulics has many advantages – even for fossil-fueled mobile machinery and vehicles. By electrifying all or parts of the hydraulic system, work can be made more efficient and energy consumption can be significantly reduced. This is achieved through better regulation and because the vehicle’s combustion engine does not need to generate energy that is wasted.
Advantages of Electrified Hydraulics
Traditional hydraulics, powered by the machine’s combustion engine, often suffer from high inefficiency. Machines with this type of hydraulics can experience significant energy losses because their hydraulic systems use a central fossil-fueled oil pump to create pressure and flow. This results in design limitations, leading to large amounts of wasted energy.
The combustion engine continuously generates energy, and when this energy is not used for work, it is lost. In a traditional system with a central pump, the pressure created must be high enough to satisfy the largest consumer in the hydraulic system. This means that all other parts of the system must be designed to handle and reduce a higher pressure than what is actually necessary.
Fossil-fueled hydraulics have many inherent limitations and can, in some respects, be an outdated solution that can often be replaced with newer and smarter alternatives.
Many times, this inefficiency is overlooked because it feels safe to do things the way they have always been done, and it has so far been relatively cheap to just add more diesel to compensate for losses, says Emil Vestman, project manager at Regal Components.
Electrified Hydraulics Save Large Amounts of Energy
In a vehicle with electrified hydraulics, the hydraulics are powered by efficient electric motors and a smart control system. The system can be optimally designed and even divided into several subsystems, where each subsystem is only activated when the work requires it. The rest of the time, the system is completely passive, eliminating unnecessary waste.
In a hybrid system, where fossil fuel is combined with electric power, the control system can ensure that the combustion engine is completely shut off when the power demand is low. This can result in significant savings in machines such as excavators and telehandlers, where studies have shown that the machines spend an average of 40% of their operating time idling, resulting in up to 17% of total fuel consumption being wasted today.
These solutions have the potential to significantly increase efficiency at the machine level.
With an electrified machine, you also get a proactive system instead of a reactive one. An electrified system reads and analyzes what the operator wants to do, and then does it, without unnecessary extra work. It stays one step ahead. When you make the sustainable choice, you save both money and energy and get a lot of smartness in return, says Emil Vestman, project manager at Regal Components.
Electrified Hydraulics: A Step Towards Sustainability
Electrifying the hydraulics significantly reduces the machine’s energy consumption and reduces or eliminates dependence on harmful energy sources. These are two good reasons to make the smart choice and move away from fossil-powered hydraulics. Another important reason is to create a sustainable working environment for yourself, your staff, and everyone in the vicinity of a work vehicle – especially when work is carried out in urban areas.
The working environment is significantly improved with electrified hydraulics. Lower levels of harmful particles are emitted, and noise levels are reduced during much of the work, both inside and outside the vehicle.
Regal Components Creates Sustainability Through Smart Solutions
The development of more sustainable machines using smart solutions has come a long way in recent years. Even if, for some reason, you cannot switch to a completely emission-free electric machine today, there are hybrid solutions that, through lower fuel consumption, reduce the threshold for users to switch from diesel and petrol to environmentally friendly fuels.
These smart solutions are now available for wheel loaders and excavators, among others, but mobile machines in many other industries are also being electrified through hybrid solutions, such as in the forestry and agricultural industries.
Regal Components is one of the companies that has long been involved in leading the development of sustainable solutions through smart systems. For us, electrifying hydraulics has been a clear step towards developing solutions that consume less energy.
Increasing Demands for Sustainability
Although there is currently no law requiring a transition to fossil-free mobile machines, the opportunities to use machines with combustion engines are decreasing in many projects.
More clients now insist that work be carried out with fossil-free mobile machines, especially in the public sector. Major players such as the Swedish Transport Administration, Skanska, and Vattenfall have, for example, established their own guidelines for themselves and their suppliers.
Sweden’s three largest cities are also working together to develop new sustainability standards, and in addition to that, each city has its own unique requirements to promote sustainability. For example, the City of Stockholm has decided that there must be access to fossil-free diesel for all machinery during the expansion of the Norra Djurgårdsstaden district. New sustainability requirements also exist for the development project in the Slakthusområdet district. It has been decided that the project will be completely free from fossil fuels, making it Sweden’s most extensive fossil-free workplace.
Electrified Hydraulics is a Safe Step Towards Sustainability
Choosing an electrified mobile machinery or vehicle can be a big decision, and something many are hesitant about. But instead of a complete transition to electrified machines, smart hybrid technology like electrified hydraulics can be a balanced step forward.
The initial cost for a hybrid machine is not as high as for a fully electrified machine, the infrastructure for charging batteries is not as crucial, and you are less likely to suffer from so-called range anxiety.
Hybrid machines, and especially electrified hydraulics, can be a smooth and safe transition to a greener operation.
Emil Vestman, Project Manager, Regal Components
At Regal Components, we have more than 30 years of experience with electrification in various forms. We offer both fully electric drive systems and various hybrid solutions for mobile machines and vehicles. We help each manufacturer find the optimal solution and the right combination of electrical components, tailored to their specific needs.
