Transitioning To a Decarbonized Economy w/ Thomas Wallner

AVL's Reimagine Mobility Podcast

The Transportation and Power Systems division focuses on assisting in the transition to a decarbonized economy, specifically in mobility, electricity generation, and storage for mobility applications.

Argonne is focusing on the reliability of electric vehicle charging, particularly DC fast charging, as a benchmark for the success rate of refueling.

There must be a paradigm shift in how we think about refueling versus recharging. Some see the potential for electric vehicles to be an additional drag on the grid. However, if electric vehicles are connected to the grid, distributed batteries could be leveraged as a resource to stabilize and provide services. This shift in thinking about electric vehicle charging is a significant step towards a more sustainable and efficient future.

Further energy savings opportunities are available with connected and automated vehicles. Extensive analysis and experimental work is underway, focusing on the impact of automated vehicles on traffic around the eco vehicle. While eco vehicles may be fuel-efficient, overall energy consumption may increase if they disrupt traffic flow.

The integration of AI, ADAS and ADS automated driving features has allowed for a more integrated view of systems of systems. Argonne is interested in how people engage with the system, as full automation is still a few years away. This could have larger energy implications than building the perfect system.

The focus on energy savings is not limited to edge cases but extends to the everyday, mundane cases that occur repeatedly. The lab is interested in understanding how people might engage with the system, as this could significantly impact overall energy consumption. The lab's engineering teams are working to understand how people might engage with the system and make informed decisions about adopting eco vehicles.
Dr. Thomas Wallner is the director of Argonne National Laboratory’s Transportation and Power Systems (TAPS) division. His team leverages its groundbreaking experimental and analytical capabilities to accelerate the development of sustainable mobility and power technologies to achieve the aggressive U.S. decarbonization goals. TAPS focuses on conducting systematic and deep analyses of all sustainable mobility technologies for on-road vehicles including light-, medium- and heavy-duty, non-road construction, agriculture, mining, rail, marine, and aviation sectors as well as decarbonizing stationary power generation, including combined heat and power systems. TAPS expertise and capabilities provide workforce development, demonstration, and deployment of innovative solutions for decarbonization that will support our nation’s transition to a cleaner and more sustainable transportation and power generation future that benefits everyone.
Thomas holds a M.S. and Ph.D. from Graz University of Technology, Austria, has published more than 100 peer-reviewed technical papers including 30 journal papers and several book chapters. He is an active Fellow Grade member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and has been serving as a session organizer and chair at several national and international conferences.

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1. Transitioning to Alternative Power (00:02:35)

2. DORMA Decarbonization of Rail, Marine & Aviation (00:09:59)

3. Argonne in the next Five Years (00:13:33)

4. Megatrends in Mobility (00:17:09)