Electrification of Agricultural Machinery: A Review

Today, agriculture industry has a significant impact in global greenhouse gas emissions. A large amount of pollutants come from diesel internal combustion engines, widely used in agricultural machinery. Since mechanization in agriculture is fundamental to achieve a proper food production for a growing human population, changes are needed in common agriculture engineering thinking in order to develop new farming machinery that could outperform conventional ones in terms of environmental impact, as well as performance, productivity and safety. Electrification is a feasible solution. A comprehensive review about agricultural machinery electrification is reported in this paper, with a particular focus on hybrid electric tractors and their implements. The introduction of electric drives in farming tractors is discussed in detail by looking at the main findings in literature and considering state-of-the-art technology. Proposals and prototypes from manufacturers are covered too, as well as economic assessments and future trends.