Argonne's GREET model impacts alternative fuel racing in the ALMS Green Challenge

In a new twist on alternative fuel racing, the winner of this year's Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on October 4 will not only be determined by its place at the finish line, but by its environmental footprint. In a nutshell, the greenest car will win. To show its commitment to helping automakers find alternative fuel solutions and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) has added a race-within-a-race--the Green Challenge.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and SAE International worked closely with ALMS to establish the Green Challenge Award. Argonne, along with SAE's Green Racing Work Group and the American ALMS, developed the formula to determine the winner.

The Green Challenge measures the energy efficiency and environmental impact of each competing car. However, with four different classes of cars, 14 manufacturers, and three alternative fuels used among the competitors, a comprehensive and balanced approach based on life cycle analysis was needed to fairly determine the winner at the end of the race.

Argonne's Greenhouse gas, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) model was used to give the scoring formula a well-to-wheels perspective. GREET calculates all the energy consumed and GHGs emitted from the time the fuel-precursor is extracted, seeded or harvested to its use as fuel in the car. The energy used, GHGs emitted and petroleum displaced will be combined into a single weighted score representing the car's environmental performance. Racecars that are more "environmentally-friendly" will score lower than cars that use more energy, more petroleum, and emit more GHGs.

All measurements and calculations will be done on a well-to-wheel basis, the most comprehensive and realistic approach to establishing the environmental impact of racing. Because of the variety of cars, speeds used and distances traveled, the performance of each car will be normalized based on its average on-track speed, weight and distanced traveled. Cars with the lowest Green Challenge scores will win.

Two awards will be given; one to the prototype classes and one to the Grand Touring (GT) classes. The prototypes represent the cars of tomorrow, incorporating the most advanced technologies available in the ALMS. The GT class represent the cars of today, based on production cars from some of the world’s most storied marquees like Ferrari, Porsche, Corvette and the Ford GT. The Protoype and GT racecars that use the least energy, the least petroleum and emit the fewest greenhouse gases on a distance and speed based equalized basis will be the winners.

The American Le Mans Series is the only racing series in the world where all its cars race on street legal alternative fuels (clean sulfur-free diesel--with a non-oil component, E10 and cellulosic E85). In this Series, automakers race to develop technologies for future consumer cars.

"Motor sports has always enjoyed the distinction of being at the forefront of advanced automotive engineering," said Andy Karsner, DOE's Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, "and it has been a primary catalyst for moving new technologies to the showroom floor. The leadership [of the ALMS] has not only set the bar for racing, but it has helped redefine the future of transportation."

Bob Larsen of Argonne's Transportation Technology R&D Center and who helped devise the formula, said the adverse conditions of ALMS' endurance races, which last up to 12 hours, are the best real-world testing of advanced technologies.

The Green Challenge will become a full-season feature in 2009, when all teams will compete for a season-long Green Challenge Championship.

July 2008