Interviews
Dr Robin Hickman: “To lower CO2 emissions, act across policy areas, vehicle technologies and behaviours.” Dr Robin Hickman: “To lower CO2 emissions, act across policy areas, vehicle technologies and behaviours.”

Dr Robin Hickman, research fellow at the Transport Studies Unit at the University of Oxford and Associate Director of transport research at the Halcrow Group, talked about his sustainable transport research.

January 2012
Dr. Mario Conte: “Ionic liquids make new and better-performing supercapacitators greener” Dr. Mario Conte: “Ionic liquids make new and better-performing supercapacitators greener”

The supercapacitators that Dr Mario Conte develops with his European partners in the ILHYPOS project will be used to enhance the batteries in electric vehicles as well as hybrids or those using combustible batteries; besides that, they will be more environmentally-friendly thanks to the use of ionic liquids

May 2011
Dr. Jörg WIND: “Performance of vehicles with fuel cells is twice as high as those with combustion engines, but safety issues cannot be neglected” Dr. Jörg WIND: “Performance of vehicles with fuel cells is twice as high as those with combustion engines, but safety issues cannot be neglected”

Hybrid electric cars offer many advantages for the future. On the road, they don't produce any greenhouse gas emissions and are also twice as efficient in terms of energy, but safety systems have to be developed to make these vehicles trustworthy

March 2011
Dr Thomas Hipke: “Aluminium foam to create a new generation of lightweight construction ships” Dr Thomas Hipke: “Aluminium foam to create a new generation of lightweight construction ships”

The advantages of changing from roads to rivers wherever it is possible are obvious: a ship can take much more payload and wouldn’t cause extra traffic on the roads. The use of a new material could even make ships greener

January 2011
Prof. Hermann Knoflacher: “Our car-addicted society is not easy to handle so we have to make changes step by step to improve sustainable mobility” Prof. Hermann Knoflacher: “Our car-addicted society is not easy to handle so we have to make changes step by step to improve sustainable mobility”

Prof. Hermann Knoflacher has been active in the sustainable mobility field for about 40 years. He is conducting research in sustainable transport at the Institute for Traffic Planning and Traffic Engineering at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria. He talked about sustainable mobility development and his scientific solution

January 2011
Dr. David O. Kronlid: “If you think about the existential dimension of mobility you also have to embrace the fact that there are values integrated in the use of mobility technology” Dr. David O. Kronlid: “If you think about the existential dimension of mobility you also have to embrace the fact that there are values integrated in the use of mobility technology”

Dr. David O. Kronlid at Uppsala University in Sweden is conducting research in environmental ethics, mobility and climate change justice. He talked about mobility at the core of climate change research and policy

January 2011
Matthew Turner: “Reduced weight, aerodynamics and fully recyclable composites to make freight transport greener” Matthew Turner: “Reduced weight, aerodynamics and fully recyclable composites to make freight transport greener”

A new composite material made of plastics, 75% lighter but almost as strong as steel, was created within the EU research project CLEANMOULD. Matthew Turner, composite engineer at EPL Composite Solutions, an independent research centre in Leicestershire, is the project coordinator

October 2010
Prof. Kypros Pilakoutas: “An economic, long lasting and energy efficient material” Prof. Kypros Pilakoutas: “An economic, long lasting and energy efficient material”

Within the European Research project ECOLANES scientists have developed a dry mix concrete which is reinforced with the recycled steel fibres. Their aim was to make the production of the concrete as energy efficient as possible, and using recycled materials is a key factor

September 2010
Werner Schönewolf: “The last mile is the most expensive in the logistic world. We want to overcome this last mile with a micro-carrier” Werner Schönewolf: “The last mile is the most expensive in the logistic world. We want to overcome this last mile with a micro-carrier”
Freight delivery services have their own challenges when operating in the inner cities. The logistic experts working on the European funded FIDEUS project have taken this problem as a central issue for a complete redesign of the urban freight logistics by REBECCA PARSONS (Aug ’10)
August 2010
Dr. Martin Goede: “Not a super light car, but a 35% lighter body than the standard used today. Still an important step to limit car emissions” Dr. Martin Goede: “Not a super light car, but a 35% lighter body than the standard used today. Still an important step to limit car emissions”

The European Union limits car emissions. A challenge that the industry now tries to tackle through weight reduction

August 2010
Michael Melz: “Reducing weight to achieve better fuel efficiency is the right approach. But it is one among many ways” Michael Melz: “Reducing weight to achieve better fuel efficiency is the right approach. But it is one among many ways”

A reduction of 100 kilograms sounds impressive. But if you compare the cars of today with the cars our parents used to drive, something odd emerges

August 2010