VIPER - Vehicle Integrated Powertrain Energy Recovery

VIPER will demonstrate 4.5% NEDC CO2 emissions reduction, applicable to all internal combustion engine vehicles, by managing the thermal environment of vehicle sub-systems. New technologies and modelling techniques will be developed for effectively using thermal energy in the whole powertrain system. There is limited heat available during powertrain warm-up & by accelerating warm up friction, churning losses are reduced thereby improving fuel economy. Stop-start and hybrid technology exacerbates this, as reduced engine running delivers less thermal energy. Once fully warm excess heat is rejected & in the VIPER project this waste heat is recovered as electrical energy.
Managing the transfer of heat around the vehicle systems and conversion to electrical energy will be enabled by development of an analytical tool for thermal environment optimisation. Further, VIPER investigates new technology in specific sub-systems enabled by the optimised thermal environment.
VIPER takes the advanced capabilities of the suppliers, and uses academic expertise to optimally integrate these into a practical demonstrator with the vehicle manufacturers. VIPER will deliver:
1) A design study for minimum Powertrain thermal inertia and assessment of a demonstrator engine.
2) Driveline and lubricant technology for fast warm-up, with reduced friction & churning losses
3) Two complementary technologies for harvesting wasted thermal energy from the exhaust system.
4) A thermal analysis tool optimising heat distribution for CO2 emissions reduction.
5) A more efficient final drive unit
6) A prototype Land Rover vehicle demonstrating the benefits to CO2 emissions