ELISA

The decarbonization of road freight transport represents an important measure for achieving climate targets. The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) is therefore funding research projects on the electrification of highway sections for the use of overhead hybrid trucks (OH trucks).

The first phase of the research project “ELISA – Electrified, Innovative Heavy Traffic on Motorways” was successfully completed in December 2018 with the completion of the first (of three nationwide) public eHighway test sections on the A5 freeway with a 5 km overhead line between Frankfurt and Darmstadt. This was followed in January 2019 by the second phase of the project, which will involve extensive field testing of the new technology in its system environment until the end of 2022.

The project is led by Hessen Mobil, with industry partners Siemens Mobility GmbH and ENTEGA AG. Under the leadership of Prof. Manfred Boltze, the team of the Institute for Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering of the Technical University of Darmstadt is in charge of the accompanying scientific research. The extensive research projects of the Institute are supported by the competences of the Department of Material Flow Management and Resource Management (FG SuR) in ecological issues. ELISA II is divided into the operation of the test route, in which the applicability of electrification concepts for regional freight transport is to be tested with the help of transport and logistics partners through the use of OH trucks, and into the accompanying research of the test operation. The contribution of the FG SuR includes an ecological assessment of the technology “OH truck” in its system environment. With this holistic ecological evaluation of the field test, statements can be made about the environmental effects of the project, which will be useful to the federal government in the transformation of the transport sector to reduce greenhouse gases in the coming years.