ASABE Technical Library - Abstract

Abstract. Economic and environmental problems caused by more than a century of intense use of fuels derived from oil have led to a constant search for alternative sources of energy, ether in urban areas or in the agricultural environment. In this context, this study was developed with the objective of evaluating the operational viability of the use of electricity as an energy source for agricultural tractors. For that, performance curves were compared between an internal combustion engine, normally used on a tractor, and an electrical motor. The electrical motor performance was considered in the proposal a theoretical set up of an electrical tractor. The hypothesis was evaluated considering its autonomy in different power demands and compared to a conventional farm tractor regarding to operating energy cost and energetic efficiency. The electrical motor had the best results for torque, power, energy efficiency and operational energetic cost. The autonomy of theoretical configuration was superior then eight hours per day, for medium and lower power, working in lower rotations. Considering these results, it was possible to conclude that the use of electricity as an energy source for agricultural tractors is viable in terms of cost and energy efficiency and has potential for intensification of research in this field.

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