The Scania electric waste truck that doesn’t waste energy
Urbaser is using a Scania 25L combined crane and compactor for cleaner and greener waste collection on the streets of Copenhagen, with 40 percent of the vehicle’s battery capacity left at the end of each day. Our film shows the truck in action.
In late 2022 the refuse collection process in the Danish capital Copenhagen became a lot cleaner, when waste management company Urbaser started using a Scania electric truck.
The Scania 25L crane truck combines electric chassis, crane and waste compactor components, and is being used to empty the underground waste containers that are a feature of Copenhagen’s newer districts of Nordhavn, Sydhavn and Amager.
Turning daily waste into new energy and heating
Residents of the city districts sort their waste into ten separate bags and dispose of it in the underground containers.
When the containers need to be emptied, the driver uses the Scania 25L’s electric crane to lift the containers out of the concrete shaft in which they stand. The container is then swung over the truck’s electrically-driven waste compactor, after which the bottom of the container is opened so that the waste falls into the compactor, where it is compressed.
When the compactor is full of residual waste, the driver drives the Scania crane truck to an incineration plant, where it is converted into energy and district heating. The other sorted waste such as paper, cardboard, metal, plastic is taken to various recycling companies in Greater Copenhagen.
A full day’s work on a single electric charge
With nine battery packs offering a gross capacity of 297 kWh, the crane truck can easily run for the whole day on just a single charge.
In fact, there is usually 40 percent battery capacity left by the end of the shift, even with the batteries powering both the truck’s engine and the hydraulic system on its 24.5 t/m Fassi compactor unit. Urbaser has a Scania electric waste collection truck that won’t waste energy.
How Scania helped Urbaser prepare for the electric truck
Before the electric crane truck was even put into operation, Scania Denmark worked with Urbaser to map out a simulation of the range of the routes for which the truck is being used.
For electric trucks, it is important to adapt the operation to the daily driving distance, the operation of the crane and compactor, the geographic location of the charging infrastructure and the capacity in relation to the truck’s battery systems.
Training drivers for the electric truck
Before delivery of the crane truck, a small team of Urbaser’s drivers was trained on how best to drive a battery-electric vehicle because it’s a bit different to driving a traditional diesel truck. The drivers learned how to adapt their accelerations and braking to the electric drive motor’s ability to partly accelerate and collect the braking energy to send back to the batteries, where it is then reused for new accelerations.
