DOE Vehicle Technologies R&D on Hybrid Electric Systems

By David Howell

Team Leader for Hybrid and Electric Systems
Manager of Electrochemical Energy Storage Research and Development
Office of Vehicle Technologies
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave, SW, Washington, DC,
David.Howell@ee.doe.gov

Bio: Mr. Dave Howell is the Team Lead for the Hybrid Electric Systems Team at the Office of Vehicle Technologies Program, U.S. Department of Energy Headquarters, in Washington DC. Earlier, he was Manager, Electrochemical Energy Storage Research and Development, a position that he had been in since 2003. For the past 6 years he has also served as the DOE Co-Chair of the FreedomCAR Electrochemical Energy Storage Tech Team. Dave was a member of the research staff of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee for 12 years prior to joining DOE. At ORNL, he served as Project Manager for Aerospace Technologies. His primary focus was the development of advanced materials and processing techniques for aerospace structures. Dave served on active duty for 6 years at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. Dave was assigned as the Program Manager for Advanced Materials for Space Structures at the Air Force Materials Laboratory. In that role, he managed the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization’s Advanced Materials for Space Structures Program supporting advanced materials R&D for spacecraft structures and mechanisms. Dave received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1985 from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Abstract: This paper presents an overview of R&D activities funded by the Hybrid Electric Systems Team at the Vehicle Technologies Program Office of the United States Department of Energy (DOE). DOE has supported, over the long term, the development of advanced automotive technologies that could achieve significant improvements in fuel economy without compromising on safety, environmental effects, performance, or affordability. DOE-supported R&D attempts to address the technical barriers which prevent the market introduction of vehicles using such technologies. The support also leverages resources and expertise from automobile manufacturers, technology developers, small businesses, national laboratories, and universities. The Hybrid Electric Systems team’s R&D focuses on the planning and modeling, development, and evaluation of advanced hybrid, electric, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) systems. It also funds the 21st Century Truck Partnership and the FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership. It includes energy storage R&D which addresses the critical issue of electricity storage and consists of a developer program – conducted in coordination with battery developers and original equipment manufacturers, applied battery research – which targets cross-cutting barriers for PHEV batteries, and focused fundamental research – which addresses critical problems of chemical instabilities for advanced batteries and researches promising new materials. It also includes advanced power electronics and electric motors R&D which addresses the issue of electric and electronic devices delivering the battery power to the vehicle’s power control circuits, charging circuits, electric motors, and other related components; and vehicle and systems simulation and testing, which include system-level simulations to help specify the necessary performance characteristics of the hardware and to predict overall vehicle efficiency and performance for a given configuration. The paper also describes DOE’s related R&D coordination efforts with other agencies.