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The port-logistic sector has a crucial role in goods transport, as the 85-90% of international trade is achieved by means of maritime routes. The latest reports from the International Maritime Organization show that the port-logistic related activities are an important source of air pollution, both for the use of large auxiliary power systems on ships, which operate during port stays, as well as for the employment of fossil fueled road vehicles for on-site operations. As a matter of fact, the most important maritime facilities are located nearby urban areas and therefore reduction of the environmental impact in ports becomes of primary importance. Thus, in the pursuit of a greener in-port mobility, a progressive replacement of fossil fuels with cleaner alternatives must be promoted. This paper presents the analysis of the performance of a hydrogenfueled plug-in fuel cell/battery hybrid vehicle for cargo-handling in roll-on and roll-off port operations.

This paper describes and compares different powertrain configurations for the retrofit of a heavy-duty Class 8 truck, powered by a 12.6 liters diesel engine. The engine is firstly equipped with an electrification-oriented organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system and then coupled to a traction electric machine into a hybrid powertrain. An electrification-oriented ORC system can produce enough energy to cover the ancillary loads, which in long-haul applications for freight transportation are quite demanding. Nevertheless, only powertrain hybridization can achieve significant improvements in the overall system efficiency. Both systems may thus be implemented in the same vehicle, but an efficiency improvement is guaranteed only if the system is carefully managed so as to reach a trade-off between the requirements and potential benefits of the ORC system and those of the hybrid powertrain.

This paper reports on the analysis of flame kinematics and cycle variation in port fuel injection (PFI) spark ignition (SI) engine. The engine was equipped with a four-valve head and with an external boost device. Different operating conditions were considered. Cycle-resolved digital imaging was used to investigate flame motion and the effects of an abnormal combustion due to the firing of fuel deposition near the intake valves and on the piston surface. Various algorithms are applied to the acquired images. Coefficients of Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) were computed and used for a statistical analysis of cycle variability. The advantage is that the analysis can be run on a small number of scalar coefficients rather than on the full data set of pixel valued luminosity.