Université Laval reclaims top spot at Shell Eco-marathon Americas after tight race with rival University of Toronto

28.04.2014  |  Globenewswire Europe

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Mater Dei supermileage team breaks own 2013 UrbanConcept category record with
best run of 901 mpg; teams say goodbye to Houston one last time

Houston - After a nail-biting weekend of Université Laval and University of
Toronto vying for the best mileage in the last Shell Eco-marathon Americas to
take place in Houston, Université Laval's Alérion Supermileage team ultimately
took top honors with an impressive achievement of 2,824 miles per gallon (mpg).
With that kind of mileage, the Alérion Supermileage vehicle could travel from
Houston all the way to Detroit - host city for Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2015
- on less than a half gallon of fuel.

Though Université Laval has dominated the competition five of the previous six
years, they were almost dethroned by the University of Toronto due to some
surprising friction problems that developed in the Laval team's vehicle's
electrical system. Ultimately, however, the team overcame the obstacles and
brought home the top $2,000 prize once again.

"Our team is very excited with the results of the weekend," said team captain
Audrey Lainé. "Initially we had issues with our engine, but we came together as
a team to fix it and are extremely satisfied. The University of Toronto and
Mater Dei High School had very close scores to our team, which made the weekend
even more exciting."

In the UrbanConcept category, Mater Dei High School from Evansville, Indiana,
achieved a solid 901.48 mpg with its gasoline vehicle Elroy, breaking its
previous record of 849 mpg and scoring the top prize of $2,000 for the
UrbanConcept category for the third year in a row. The school's other entry, a
Prototype battery electric vehicle, captured that energy category with 537.16
miles per kilowatt-hour (m/kWh).

Other top achievements included:

* Prototype diesel: The No Spark Plug Allowed team from Sullivan High School
in Sullivan, Indiana, set a new record achieving 1,899.32 mpg with their
vehicle Black Diesel.
* Prototype ethanol: The Tatonkatoo team from the University of Colorado
Boulder in Boulder, Colorado, achieved 1,771.37 mpg with their vehicle
Tatonkatoo.
* Prototype hydrogen: The UCDenver team from University of Colorado Denver in
Denver, Colorado, achieved 37.37 m/kWh with their vehicle Archetype.


"We look at Shell Eco-marathon as a way to spark a passion for engineering among
young people, as well as fuel the conversation around future energy challenges,"
said Wolfgang Warnecke, Shell Chief Scientist Mobility. "Each year we see new
technologies that have been developed by these bright young minds, and we hope
someday to see these innovations make their way into everyday vehicles."

Tech Advances Galore

Over its 30 various "editions," Shell Eco-marathon has seen radical changes in
car design and the use of new technologies. For example, this year's electric-
battery vehicle of Saint Thomas Academy of Mendota Heights, Minnesota, sported a
3D-printed steering wheel that the team designed to improve upon its previous
touchscreen steering wheel.  Team captain Ian Nichols noted that the 3D-printed
wheel includes a button for radio communication between the driver and the rest
of the team, as well as an easily accessible throttle near the top right of the
wheel.

St. Paul's School from Covington, Louisiana, created the seat in its
UrbanConcept diesel vehicle Indy, inspired by Indiana Jones and the Raiders of
the Lost Ark, by creating it from kombucha, a vegetable leather grown from
yeast, sugar water and bacteria. Team member Marcus Garner said the team wanted
to build fuel-efficient vehicles that incorporate natural materials and are also
visually appealing.
Other technical advances included an entirely student-designed computer system
developed by the Cedarville University team that measures factors like wind
resistance and wheel speed in order to provide the team with real-time data to
guide their driving strategy. Additionally, Rice University's vehicle, Alpha
Centuria, was made to be ultra-lightweight with carbon fiber and composite
materials, and Brazil's Universidade Federal de Itajuba team added solar panels
this year to make its electric battery vehicle even more energy efficient.

Ingenuity, Flexibility are Key

Anything can happen with the vehicles, so teams must be ready to react and move
quickly on alterations, or come up empty-handed. The team from the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign learned, just nine days before the start of the
competition, that its UrbanConcept hydrogen vehicle, EcoConcept, would not start
due to a broken fuel cell. A last-minute decision was made to switch the vehicle
to a gasoline-powered engine, a major challenge because the team's only
experience was on hydrogen engines. They completed the changeover Saturday night
during the competition but, despite their best efforts, couldn't complete a run
this year.

Goodbye Houston, Hello Detroit

This year marked the eighth edition of Shell Eco-marathon Americas and the fifth
year in Houston. The students will now gear up to take the Motor City by storm
April 10-12, 2015. To drum up excitement for next year's event, Sullivan High
School's winning vehicle will be displayed in Detroit's Henry Ford museum, and
will be transported there by fuel efficiency expert Wayne Gerdes in the back of
a 2014 RAM 1500 Laramie Limited using a new test market pilot fuel: Shell Diesel
FiT.

New global partners HP, Michelin, The Linde Group and Southwest Research
Institute assisted the student engineers by offering expertise, products and
collaborative opportunities. The new partners added considerable value to the
event, particularly with regard to innovation, technology, sustainability,
mobility and tackling future energy challenges.

For more information on all 2014 events across the globe, including the complete
Americas 2014 roster, schedule and official rules, please visit the Shell Eco-
marathon website at www.shell.com/ecomarathon.


INQUIRIES:

Shell Media Line               +1 (713) 241-4544


About Shell Oil Company
Shell Oil Company is an affiliate of the Royal Dutch Shell plc, a global group
of energy and petrochemical companies in more than 70 countries. We deliver a
diverse range of energy solutions and petrochemicals to customers worldwide.
These include transporting and trading oil and gas, marketing natural gas,
producing and selling fuel for ships and planes, generating electricity and
providing energy efficiency advice.

We also produce and sell petrochemical building blocks to industrial customers
globally, and we are investing in making renewable and lower-carbon energy
sources competitive for large-scale use. In the U.S., we operate in 50 and
employ more than 20,000 people delivering energy in a responsible manner.

About Shell Eco-marathon
Shell Eco-marathon is a global program that challenges high school and college
student teams to design, build and test the most energy-efficient vehicles. With
annual events in the Americas, Europe and Asia, this innovation competition
pushes future scientists and engineers to travel the farthest distance using the
least amount of energy. Visit www.shell.com/ecomarathon/americas to learn more
about this program.



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sem-americas-2014-results-winners:
http://hugin.info/159065/R/1780472/608747.pdf



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