Reducing Diesel Fuel Consumption Through The Electrification Of Agricultural Machinery
Keywords:
Agricultural machinery, electrification, diesel displacementAbstract
The potential reduction of direct diesel fuel use through full or partial electrification of agricultural machinery is assessed using a useful-work-based energy balance. Battery-electric and hybrid configurations are compared for a hypothetical low-power operating cycle. With an assumed 4.0 kW mechanical load, a load factor of 0.65 and five operating hours, useful mechanical work is 13.00 kWh/day. The corresponding battery output is 15.20 kWh/day, whereas a conventional diesel reference requires 5.31 L/day under the selected fuel-energy and drivetrain-efficiency assumptions. Electrification shares of 30%, 60% and 100% are evaluated as idealized load substitution cases. Fuel savings depend on the electricity source and the actual duty cycle; all results constitute preliminary calculations rather than experimental validation.
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