Environmental friendly vehicles

Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

The Open University has embarked on a project in attempting hybridization of the SLTB buses. To this end the project has started in converting a bus. Speaking to Daily News Business Dr. Nuraj Rajapakse Project Consultant Engineer, said that the target is to achieve at least 10% fuel saving on Sri Lanka Transport Board buses.

“If we are successful in this venture we can show a marked saving and also reduce the impact on the environment created by conventional vehicle and their emissions,” he said.

Hybrid vehicles are going to be the future. Whether we like it or not it will come. It is now time that we tried to start changing. If not, we will have a lot of environmental issues in the future,” he said.

Pollution caused by vehicles has created direct and indirect health problems among the public. Treatment for their health problems is another cost that has to be considered by the public. With hybrid vehicles it shows a direct benefit to the environment in terms of emission and also the vehicles are more recyclables than conventional ones. In all developed countries hybrid cars are used more. The present trend is now to change from conventional fuel to hybrids, Dr Rajapakse said.

He said, for this project we have imported the DC Motor and we have also acquired the batteries required. However, we have to develop a suitable safety system for this. When asked why the system cannot be imported and assembled here he replied, “the cost of doing that is still prohibitive. The countries that have the technology are reluctant to let us have it”.

The cost of bringing down the required system and assembling them here might not prove financially viable. The cost would be so prohibitive that hybridization of these buses would not then be economical. Hence the requirement to develop a local power management system is vital, he said.

The present change which is taking place in the transport industry is like the change over from horse driven carriages to petrol cars. Petrol and diesel vehicles will in the near future be replaced by hybrids, he said.