Projects

The eWorkVehiclePower project develops and demonstrates a modular and scalable concept for flexible, cost-competitive and energy efficient electrical powering of professional working vehicles operating in areas with limited electrical grid infrastructure for charging. The hybrid fuel cell battery powering unit innovatively combines minimal usage of relatively costly fuel cell systems and maximum usage of technically mature and cost-competitive battery systems. It provides the necessary duty cycle power in areas where the electrical grid infrastructure cannot support large-scale battery charging, and it avoids the need for power generation from on-board combustion engine driven sources. Banke ApS is the leader of a project consortium including Converdan A/S and The University of Southern Denmark. The project is co-funded by The Danish Energy Agency’s EUDP program.

This project, supported by The Danish Innovation Fund’s Innobooster program further develops a proof-of-concept powertrain conversion kit into a market-ready product for series production. The project matures key elements of the existing concept whilst adding new innovation to strengthen the value proposition. The battery system design will be further developed to include interfaces to range extenders with different voltages, extending the available energy will be extended from the current 193kWh to up to 500kWh, enabling a broader range of customers to electrify their work vehicle applications. Driveline components and design will be optimised for series production and developed to significantly broaden the reach of Banke’s addressable market for the powertrain solution by developing a “drop-in” powertrain (battery system + driveline) specifically for the most common working vehicle platforms in the European market. The Innobooster program supports companies that wish to develop and make a new product or service ready for the market or to improve a process that increases the company's competitiveness and creates growth. Support from Innobooster helps reduce project-related risks.

The overall objective of the VIRTUAL-FCS project is to make the design process of hybrid fuel cell and battery systems easier, cheaper and quicker. It will develop a fully open source software‐hardware (cyber‐physical) tool that can be adopted as a global standard for optimal fuel cell system design. Banke was invited to join the project consortium to provide application profiles and duty-cycles for heavy municipal work vehicles. The project is supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.