Shell Eco-marathon, students stretch the boundaries of fuel efficiency
With an eye on the future of transportation, the fifth annual Shell Eco-marathon® Americas descended upon the streets of downtown Houston. This year's event, held April 14-17, drew a record 68 teams from 19 high schools and 32 universities across Canada and the United States and culminated in a three-peat win by Quebec's Université Laval.
Nearly 10,000 spectators enjoyed the event this year as more than 700 students stretched the boundaries of fuel efficiency, teaming up in fuel-efficient vehicles they'd designed, built, and tested in hopes of traveling the farthest distance using the least amount of energy.
With an astonishing 2,564.8 miles per gallon, fist prize in the Prototype class for the Internal Combustion category was bestowed upon Quebec's Université Laval. The university, having taken the same honor in the street course challenge three years in a row, beat last year's mileage by 77mpg.
In the UrbanConcept class, the team from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La. took first prize by achieving a best run of 646.7 mpg. A complete list of Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2011 winners for both on-track and off-track awards can be found on Shell's website.
"Every year, the competition at Shell Eco-marathon Americas gets a little tougher," said Anthony Bernier of Université Laval. "With more teams participating this year, there are a lot of really smart and innovative fuel-efficient ideas to be seen on and off the track. We put a lot of time and hard work into our vehicle this year and are very proud of how we did. We are excited to be Shell Eco-marathon Americas champions for the third year in a row and to have beat our mileage achieved last year!"
Shell Eco-marathon continues to grow and challenge students to push the boundaries with their innovative fuel efficiency solutions. In that spirit, an e-mobility category was added to the 2011 competitions. This category includes both Prototype and UrbanConcept vehicles powered by electric motors using hydrogen, solar or, for the first time, plug-in' battery energy sources. Other fuels in the internal combustion powered vehicles include gasoline, diesel, GTL, biodiesel or ethanol.
Shell Eco-marathon is an inspiring part of Shell's "Smarter Mobility" program, which is aimed at meeting the needs of today's drivers as society faces an increasing demand on energy for transport. Students and their designs are competitively focused on smarter use of energy as Shell and many others believe that, while alternative energies such as hydrogen and advanced biofuels have real potential, there will not be enough of these alternative sources to make a measureable difference for another decade or more.
This year's teams, some with multiple vehicle entries in different categories, entered 56 Prototype entries and 12 UrbanConcept entries.
- The Prototype entries consisted of 39 vehicles powered by Internal Combustion engines included 32 by gasoline, three by ethanol, three by diesel fuel and one by biodiesel.
- The 17 Prototype vehicles powered by e-mobility included nine by Plug-in' electricity, three by fuel cell/hydrogen technology and five by solar.
- The UrbanConcept entries consisted of nine vehicles powered by Internal Combustion engines including seven by gasoline and two by diesel fuel.
- The three UrbanConcept vehicles powered by e-mobility included one by Plug-in' electricity, one by fuel cell/hydrogen and one by solar.
Sponsors for this year's event included SKF USA Inc., Autodesk, Southwest Research Institute, Michelin, and Pennzoil ULTRA.
Students looking to dethrone Quebec's Université Laval: Start your engines; the sixth annual Shell Eco-marathon Americas energy challenge will return, once again to the streets of Houston, in March 2012.
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