How Many Barrels of Oil Does it Take to Cool America's Cars and Trucks Annually?

PLYMOUTH, Mich., July 29 -- With the sweltering summer sun and rising gasoline prices as a backdrop, experts will gather Wednesday July 30th in Plymouth to discuss ways of making cars and trucks more efficient by improving vehicle thermal management, including air conditioning.

At stake are the 7.0 billion gallons of gasoline used each year for air conditioning vehicles, or 5.5 percent of total domestic petroleum consumption, according to Dr. Albert Turtscher, Chairman of the Virtual Vehicle Thermal Management Conference, hosted by AVL, a powertrain engineering and instrumentation company.

"Automakers and suppliers recognize that as emissions and fuel efficiency regulations become more stringent, a systems approach is required to effectively design the heating and cooling functions for vehicles. We waste literally millions of gallons of fuel on sub-optimized thermal management. This is a tremendous amount of fuel, and an extraordinary amount of money," said Turtscher. He further noted that air conditioning compressors can use as much gasoline as a vehicle driving down the road at 35 mph, referencing a study by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

"Another study conducted by NREL indicates that reducing the impact of the solar load and more efficient cooling could save up to 50 percent of the fuel used for air conditioning. This equates to more than 3.5 billion gallons of gasoline."

In the last decade, vehicle cooling systems have evolved into complex networks designed to efficiently balance heat transfer between the powertrain and vehicle. Today, a modern vehicle thermal management system must coordinate the thermal environments under the hood, the powertrain cooling system and the passenger compartment, with the goal of optimizing performance and passenger comfort.

As emissions standards become more stringent worldwide and pressure to increase fuel efficiency grows, breakthroughs in thermal management are becoming increasingly important.

The conference will host presenters from manufacturers, suppliers, and academics from the engineering community, and will be held at St. John's Conference Center at 44045 Five Mile Road, Plymouth, Michigan.

AVL, headquartered in Graz, Austria, is the world's largest privately owned and independent company for the development of gasoline, diesel, and alternative fuel powertrain systems, as well as fuel cell and hybrid technologies. The company also manufactures powertrain instrumentation and test systems. Close cooperation with customers is guaranteed by affiliates and local offices worldwide. AVL's North American Headquarters is located in the Detroit suburb of Plymouth, Michigan. The AVL website is www.avl.com .