Buses that pass by without noise and emission, that pick up passengers indoors, and are powered by renewable sources of electricity.

Boid was asked, with the electric bus project “ElectriCity” as a platform, to generate new knowledge for how an electric bus can enter and exit an indoor station while maintaining the indoor feel and minimize energy loss. Boid worked on the project closely with its sister company CIT Energy Management.

Client:

Cooperation for Sustainable Public Transport & Chalmersfastigheter

Deliverables:

Concept solution

Busloads of air

The biggest challenge is that when the bus enters the indoor station, it pushes out the corresponding volume of heated air. When the bus then leaves, the equal volume of cold outdoor air is forced into the station again. An issue that is especially problematic during the winter. This process leads to large variations in temperature and it takes a lot of energy to heat up the cold air that enters the station. Both factors affect the indoor climate and energy consumption negatively.

Preserving the indoor climate

The generated solutions focused on storing the warm air that the bus wants to push out from the station. The most promising idea was based on a solution with a fixed storage space with the same size as the bus volume. When the electric bus is charged, waste heat is used to warm up the stored air to the same temperature as the inside of the bus stop. When the bus leaves the station, stored heated air is forced into the bus station instead of cold outdoor air being sucked in. The air flow is controlled by managing pressure variations. This solution stabilizes air temperature in the bus stop. Additionally, the solution does not require any extra energy input to heat up the stored air and requires no large moving parts of the structure that would also complicate and increase the cost of construction.

Safe and intuitive interaction

Boid also generated solutions for how the bus will interact with the station in a safe and user-friendly manner, both for pedestrians, passengers, bus drivers and other drivers. Building an indoor station for buses is new and in many cases there was no prior knowledge to lean on.

Future, indoor friendly, public transport

The ElectriCity project continues and more indoor stations will be built in the future. The intention is to continue implement new solutions for future, indoor friendly, public transport.