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Stop. Pick-up. Go. Repeat. This is the routine your sanitation and recycling trucks follow as they go about their daily rounds, relieving us of the astonishing amount of junk we all manage to accumulate in a week's time. This eats up fuel in traditionally-powered vehicles. Peterbilt might have a solution on display at the Waste Expo 2008 in Chicago (Waste Expo? Who knew?). The Model 320 HLA is equipped with Eaton's Hydraulic Launch Assist, which captures braking energy and stores it as pressurized hydraulic fluid. That fluid is then used to help propel the truck when the driver gets it back underway. UPS is currently piloting a delivery van equipped with the same technology.

Peterbilt has not released any specific numbers, but states that the reductions in emissions and fuel consumption observed during the Model 320's testing are significant, and that as a bonus, the system should help reduce brake-related maintenance costs as well. Because garbage trucks start and stop so frequently, this might be the most natural application of hydraulic launch assist yet. Fuel sure isn't getting any cheaper, so it'll be interesting to see whether the technology catches on in the sanitation biz.

[Source: Peterbilt via Truck News]

Many modern vehicles already use hydraulic power for certain functions, namely power steering and brakes. Companies such as UPS, though, see potential in using hydraulic systems as part of a hybrid drivetrain. While nobody is expecting a hybrid hydraulic system to be able to store enough energy to achieve miles-upon-miles of driving distance, the frequent stopping and restarting of some vehicles - delivery trucks, to name just one obvious example - make them excellent candidates for possible hydraulic technology.

Pump on over to Number 7.

Big serious trucks are not usually what comes to mind when you think of the word "hybrid" but in a world of $100+ barrels of light sweet crude, Peterbilt is putting out some products that may change that. Its medium duty Model 330 (photo above) is just like a Prius. Except it takes diesel and boasts as much torque as a herd of Prii.

Featuring the Eaton parallel hybrid power system, the Model 330 and Model 335 both offer electric motor assist, regenerative braking, lithium ion batteries and fat tax credits. The 330 uses about 30 percent less fuel in an urban driving cycle while the 335 can save a whopping 60 percent when it's used in a utility configuration. How does it do that? Say you're up in the bucket rescuing a kitten restoring power after a thunderstorm, the battery supplies the juice you need to maneuver. If you need more than the battery has, the motor will automatically turn on and quickly recharge it.

Peterbilt has another type of truck that features Eaton's Hydraulic Launch Assist (HLA). The imaginatively-named Model 320 is designed for "vocational stop-and-go applications" or "garbage truck," in the modern parlance. As a vehicle that may stop and go a thousand or more times a day, this Peterbilt takes advantage of hydraulics to recover up to 75 percent of the energy from stopping to use for relaunching.

As has been found with other heavy duty hybrids, maintenance, as well as fuel, savings are significant with these workhorses. Quieter operation and lower environmental impact seal the deal. Check out all the details in the press releases after the jump.

[Source: Peterbilt via eTrucker]

Hydraulic hybrids have been on the drawing boards for a few years now, with company's such as FedEx and UPS testing systems as we speak. Even Ford has dabbled in hydraulic technology for their line of mainstream F-Series trucks. One benefit to using hydraulics as opposed to electric hybrids is that more energy can potentially be recaptured when braking, which is then re-used to start the vehicle moving forward again. This idea is put to good use in this concept as well, which was created in just five days by students all over the world. Although the design exists only on the computer, we can admire the engineering ideas which went into it. Using a 600cc motorcycle unit from Honda, the gas-powered engine powers a hydraulic pump which provides power to not only all four wheels but also the power steering pump. In addition to being all-wheel-drive, the machine also features four-wheel-steering, so that steering pump works overtime.

Projects such as this one prove that there are more ideas than time and money when it comes to designing a better mouse-trap hybrid car. The real problem lies in finding the funding to make something like this design become a reality. Nobody will ever really know how well this system could work if it sits still on the hard disk of a computer.

[Source: The Kneeslider]