The Disposal of plastic waste has become a major threat to the environment. As plastic waste is non-biodegradable element and toxic in nature, it has created several challenges for the environment (Gebrekidan & Berhe, 2012). Innovations and researchers have developed certain ways of managing plastic waste. They have come up with the idea of using this plastic waste in to the construction of roads. Roads constructed using plastic wastes are more efficient than the conventional methods such as these have greater load carrying capacity, reduce release of carbon dioxide in atmosphere, better road strength, and many more (Akadiri et al., 2012).
Since last decade, there has been huge increment in the purchasing of electric vehicles. This is because electric vehicles have several advantages over gasoline powered vehicles like silent ride, immediate torque, higher efficiency, premium performance, and less maintenance cost (EVgo, 2018).
In this paper, the ways for charging electric vehicles within sustainable road construction methods will be evaluated. I want to establish a road construction company, XYZ that mainly works on the concept of using plastic waste materials for the construction of roads. XYZ will also focus on providing wireless charging solutions for the electric vehicles when they are moving on the road. This concept includes the installation of magnetic coils under the road surface e during the construction of road.
Wavin was established in 1955 by Johan Kelller. It is a Dutch company that manufactures plastic pipes for the drainage and water supply purposes. It is headquartered in Zwolle, Netherlands and operates around more than 25 European countries. Wavin is going to develop the very first plastic road of the world. Plastic road concept was introduced by KWS (subsidiary of VolkerWessels). KWS comes in partnership with Wavin and Total in 2016 for the further development of plastic roads. This road will be constructed in Zwolle, Netherlands and will be made up of using the 100 per cent recycled plastic waste. Road will be hollow prefabricated with the elements that allow drainage of water and installation of cables and pipes (Wavin, 2018).
Industrial revolution has increased the production of vehicles which resulted in the mass production of transportation energy. This has increased the consumption of fossil fuels as this is the dominant source of energy. Consumption of fossil fuels resulted in the increase of carbon emissions. 16 per cent of the global emission is from the transportation sector and where 95 per cent is from fossil fuels (ICCT, 2012). This leads to global warming and has created the risk of depletion of fuel by the end of this century.
Revolution of electric vehicle has come up with solution for this problem. Electric vehicles are more efficient and hence results in the less greenhouse gas and other emissions as compared to the cars powered by internal combustion engines. In 2016, around 1.3 million electric vehicles were sold globally (Palinski, 2107). However, electric vehicle trend is slow but to increase the automotive and mobility trends, OEMs has announced the launch of 100 new models of electric vehicles by 2024 (Chatelain et al., 2018). In the energy industry, electric vehicles are gaining momentum and as per the industry members, in coming few year’s electric vehicles will populate our roads which emit almost zero or very low carbon.
One of the major concern regarding electric vehicles is the source of energy that people use to charge their vehicles (Un-Noor et al., 2017). Two kinds of emissions are associated with electric vehicles; these are tailpipe and well-to-wheel emissions. Electric vehicles emit no tailpipe when runs on electricity. Electric vehicles are more eco-friendly when evaluated on this factor alone but while evaluating the eco-friendliness of electric vehicles, it is important to consider the ‘well-to-wheel’ emissions. It is an overarching term that includes air pollutants and greenhouse gases emitted during the production of energy needed to power the electric vehicles. Amount of emission depends on the resources used for the production of electricity. All electric vehicles emit 4500 pounds of carbon dioxide when well-to-wheel is taken into account (Faisal, 2017). Natural gas is the cleanest form of fossil fuel as it emits 50 to 60 per cent less carbon dioxide as compared to the coal. Even if the primary source of generating electricity is coal, it emits lesser carbon dioxide when compared to conventional cars. Therefore, in order to reduce emissions, while once primary motive of buying electric vehicle is to be green than one has to use renewable sources of energy for powering their car which include wind, solar, or geothermal energy.
As discussed above that well-to wheel emission reduces the efficiency of electric vehicles because the type of method used for producing electricity is also important in order to reduce greenhouse gases and air pollutants. Research said that if wireless charging methods are developed for powering the electric vehicles than this problem of well-to-wheel emission can be reduced to a great extent and the zero emission targets can be achieved. There had been lot of research and studies carried out in this field. UK is testing out roads that charge the electric vehicles as they go. Israel has found out a solution of wireless charging roads for electric vehicles. This technology involves installation of inverters along the road side that provides power to the copper plates which are embedded in the road. It requires the installation of the similar copper plates in the electric vehicle’s underside. And when the vehicles pass over the charged roadway, power will be generated when the two fields interact. This technology is known as the Inductive Power Transfer technology which will help in making eRoad system for EV charging (Vilathgamuwa & Sampath, 2015). Inverters installed to the road side that provide electricity to the plates, can be charged by the use of solar energy by implementing solar plates on the street lights and the poles near the road side. This would eliminate the well-to-wheel emission to a great extent and help in achieving the zero emission targets from the electric vehicles (Hanley, 2018).
Similarly, this technology can be adopted by our company XYZ where company will embed the copper plates in the road surface while constructing the roads using recycled plastic waste. Roads constructed using the recycled plastic are made hallow and has the space for the installation of drainage water pipes and other elements like cables and many more. In the same way, we will embed copper plates in this hallow space sandwiched between the plastic road layers.
While constructing the plastic roads in UK, our company XYZ can implement this technology in the roads. This technology involves the installation of embedded systems that provides wireless charging to the electric vehicles when they go over the road surface. The technology named as Dynamic Electric Vehicle Charging (DEVC) could charge two vehicles moving on the track embedded with the Inductive Power Transfer technology (Suh & Cho, 2107). This would have the capacity of charging at the rate of 20kW while vehicle moving at the high speed.
For the implementation of wireless charging technology under the road surface has two key features. These are Power Inverter on the road side that provide electricity to the embedded plates in the road, a Roadway Infrastructure that consist of the copper plates embedded in the road.
The construction of such road is carried out by first creating the plastic aggregate that acts as the raw material for the road construction. This raw material is heated at the temperature of 170 degree Celsius and the plastic road is fabricated using this raw material. Two coils, transmitter and the receiver coils are used. These coils are electrically insulated from each other. These coils will be placed inside the hallow space in plastic road. Copper plates will be connected to the inverter placed near the road side that supply electricity to the plates. Same copper plates will be installed in the electric vehicles (Menaria & Sankhla, 2015). When the electric vehicles pass over the road surface, plates create magnetic field and provide charging to the vehicle. Inverter placed near the road side will be connected to the solar plates that will provide charging to the inverter.
Source: (Hull, 2017)
Source: (Swartz, 2018)
Today, global warming has become a critical issue for the environment and usage of plastic is one of the major factors that causing this. As plastics are non-biodegradable, so these have become a topic of concern for the environment. Many researches and techniques are being developed to manage the plastic waste. Also, a huge amount is spent on the construction and repairing of roads. Therefore, both of these two problems can be resolved by using plastic waste material for the construction of roads, this will help in using and managing huge amount of plastic that has become an big issue for the environment and also save the large amount that is spent on the construction and repairing of roads. Plastic roads can be constructed in half of the cost and remain last three times longer than the traditionally paved roads. Additionally, these roads can be installed 70 per cent faster than those conventional roads. These advantages of plastic roads open new scopes for our company as recently very few organizations are present who are working on this concept. Till now no company has developed this strategy of integration of wireless charging solution with plastic roads, therefore, this concept will definitely give solution for the plastic waste as well as for increasing pollution due to conventional vehicles. And as ours is the first company that will implement this technology, has big scope in future to grow with this technology.
Wavin is from one of the longest established organization which was established around 60 years back. Wavin is the popular supplier of plastic pipes systems. In 2016, Wavin in partnership with KWS and Total, started to develop the very first plastic road using the recycled plastic waste. Wavin is developing hallow plastic roads that has pipes and water drainage system under the road surface. On the other hand, our company will use the concept of plastic roads made from using the recycled plastic but in addition to that we will embed copper plates under the road surface that will charge electric vehicles when they pass over the road.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that plastic roads can be the future roads. Due to the threat to the environment because of increasing usage of plastic, it has become very important to manage and recycling of plastic waste. Using plastic for the road construction has given a fabulous alternative for the management of plastic. Roads constructed using plastic are more efficient, cheap, and long lasting than traditional roads. Along with plastic roads, we can use embedding wireless charging solution for the electric vehicles under the road surface, so that provide charging to the electric vehicles and thus helps in reduction of vehicles that use fossil fuels and leads environmental pollution. Therefore, it can be said that, integration of plastic roads with wireless charging solution for electric vehicles technology is going to be a future of road construction in UK.
Reference
Akadiri, P.O., Chinyio, E.A. & Olomolaiye, P.O., 2012. Design a Sustainable Building: A Concept Framework for Implementing Sustainability in the Building Sector. Buildings, 2, pp.126-52.
Chatelain, V.A., Erriquez, M., Moulière, P.-Y. & Schäfer, P., 2018. Elektroautos: Trends in Electric Vehicle Design. [Online] Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/what-a-teardown-of-the-latest-electric-vehicles-reveals-about-the-future-of-mass-market-evs/de-de.
EVgo, 2108. Why EVs? [Online] Available at: https://www.evgo.com/why-evs/.
Faisal, F., 2017. An Analysis of Electric Vehicle Trends in Developed Nations: A Sustainable Solution for India. The Journal of Undergraduate Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, 10(1).
Gebrekidan, A. & Berhe, M., 2012. The Environmental Impacts of the Disposal of Plastics Bags and water Bottles in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Sacha Jornal of Environmental Studies, 2(1), pp.81-94.
Hanley, S., 2018. Electric Car Myth Buster — Well-To-Wheel Emissions. [Online] Available at: https://cleantechnica.com/2018/02/19/electric-car-well-to-wheel-emissions-myth/.
Hull, R., 2017. Like a real life Scalextric: Tech firm creates a wireless road that can charge electric cars on the move. [Online] Available at: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-4529962/Qualcomm-s-road-charges-electric-cars-move.html.
ICCT, 2012. Global Transportation Energy and Climate. [Online] Available at: https://www.theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/ICCT%20Roadmap%20Energy%20Report.pdf.
Menaria, Y. & Sankhla, R., 2015. Use of Waste Plastic in Flexible Pavements-Green Roads. Open Journal of Civil Engineering, 5(3), p.299.
Palinski, M., 2107. A Comparison of Electric Vehicles and Conventional Automobiles: Costs and Quality Perspective. Thesis. Novia.
Suh, N.P. & Cho, D.H., 2107. Wireless Power Transfer for Electric Vehicles. In The On-line Electric Vehicle, pp.17-34.
Swartz, M., 2018. Wireless Charging of Electric Vehicles While Driving. [Online] Available at: https://calmfulliving.com/project/wirelessly-charging-electrical-vehicles-while-driving/.
Un-Noor, F. et al., 2017. A comprehensive study of key electric vehicle (EV) components, technologies, challenges, impacts, and future direction of development. Energies, 10(8), p.1217.
Vilathgamuwa, D.M. & Sampath, J.P.K., 2015. Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) for Electric Vehicles (EVs)—Present and Future Trends. In Plug in electric vehicles in smart grids, pp.33-60.
Wavin, 2018. Mission and Vision. [Online] Available at: https://www.wavin.com/en-en/About/Mission-and-Vision.
Wavin, 2018. The-first-Plastic-Road-will-be-installed-in-the-Netherlands. [Online] Available at: https://www.wavin.com/en-gb/Knowledge-centre/News/The-first-Plastic-Road-will-be-installed-in-the-Netherlands.
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