Innovative digital hydraulics technology, integrating variable-speed electric drives with redesigned system architectures, promises significant energy savings and emission reductions in industrial fluid power applications, offering a pragmatic pathway to decarbonisation alongside electrification.
According to the original report by Alessandro Carmona of Danfoss Power Solutions, digital hydraulics, an approach that couples variable-speed electric drive technology with redesigned pump, actuator and system architectures, can deliver step-change improvements in industrial hydraulic efficiency and a material reduction in CO₂ emissions. Industry analyses cited by Carmona estimate that fluid-power machinery is responsible for roughly 1.8–2.0 Gt of CO₂ per year, with over 40% of that attributable to transmission and hydraulic losses; digital-hydraulics architectures, he argues, can cut energy use substantially and reduce emissions by around one-third while increasing system efficiency by up to 50%.
Why hydraulic systems matter
Electrification delivers clear efficiency advantages in many applications, but fluid power retains technical and commercial relevance where very high power or force density, compactness, robustness and intrinsic safety are required, notably in primary metals, heavy manufacturing, marine/offshore and many mobile off‑highway machines. According to Carmona, for those sectors that will continue to rely on fluid power, the industry must prioritise larger efficiency gains through digitalisation rather than treat electrification as the sole route to decarbonisation.
What “digital hydraulics” means in practice
Carmona distinguishes digital hydraulics from simple VSD retrofits. The digital-hydraulics paradigm pairs a speed-on-demand electric motor (induction or PMSM/servo) with appropriately sized fixed- or variable-displacement pumps, sophisticated P/Q (pressure/flow) control software and, where appropriate, decentralised electrohydraulic actuators (EHAs). Running pumps and motors only as required eliminates the constant bypass/relief flow of conventional systems and can reduce energy consumption dramatically, Carmona cites reductions of up to 70% versus a conventional fixed‑speed baseline depending on duty cycle, and project-level energy savings in field trials have been reported in the 20–25% range for retrofit digital pump solutions.
Technology variants and system trade-offs
- Induction-motor + VSD solutions provide an accessible efficiency uplift for lower‑dynamic applications and are well suited to centralised HPUs.
- Servo‑motor (PMSM) architectures deliver closed‑loop, high‑dynamic control with superior pressure/flow on demand for medium- and high‑control applications.
- Electrohydraulic actuators decentralise hydraulic power for modular machines, reduce system oil volumes and leakage risk, and can replace complex valve manifolds in systems where many functions are electrified.
Practical benefits extend beyond energy: downsizing pumps and motors reduces mass and footprint, lowers cooling requirements and oil volumes, and cuts noise and maintenance costs, factors that shorten payback and accelerate adoption in cost‑sensitive industrial fleets.
Evidence and industry examples
Industry partnerships and research back these claims. Field studies of Danfoss’s digital pump technology (Dextreme) paired with electric drives showed energy reductions in the mid‑20% range in excavator trials, enabling smaller battery packs for electrified off‑highway equipment. Volvo Construction Equipment and Norrhydro have demonstrated multi‑chamber digital actuators (NorrDigi™) for excavators that reduce hydraulic subsystem complexity and fuel/CO₂ consumption, with production intent announced for machine integration. Independent modelling and experimental work on hydraulic hybrid drivetrains indicates that replacing conventional pumps and motors with digital counterparts can raise drivetrain efficiency from typical 64–81% ranges toward nearly 90% in some simulated duty cycles, implying up to ~25% improvement in overall transmission efficiency in those cases.
Implementing change: skills, standards and collaboration
Carmona stresses that realising the potential of digital hydraulics requires competence upgrades across component suppliers, OEMs and end users, plus stronger collaboration between industry and academia. European initiatives convening industry, universities, trade associations and CETOP to develop a coordinated technology roadmap are cited as a model for accelerating disruptive developments and easing technology transfer into production machines.
What this means for industrial decarbonisation decisions
For B2B decision‑makers in industrial decarbonisation, the message is pragmatic: assess system‑level emissions and duty cycles before defaulting to electrification. Where fluid power remains the best technical fit, redesigning hydraulic power and control for “power on demand” can unlock large reductions in energy use, operational CO₂ and total cost of ownership. Pilot projects and component-level trials, covering digital pumps, servo drives and EHAs, are the recommended next step to validate duty‑cycle benefits and quantify whole‑system impacts (including footprint, oil volume, noise and maintenance) in the user’s operating context.
According to the original report, combining these technologies with coordinated R&D and standards work offers a credible pathway to deliver competitive, lower‑emission fluid‑power machines now, while electrification progresses where technically and economically appropriate.
- https://www.fluidpowerworld.com/how-to-achieve-industrial-decarbonization-with-digital-hydraulics/ – Please view link – unable to able to access data
- https://www.volvoce.com/latin-america/en-us/about-us/news/2022/electrohydraulic-innovation/ – Volvo Construction Equipment and Finnish company Norrhydro have developed a digital hydraulic actuator for construction equipment that increases productivity while significantly reducing fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions. The new technology is expected to be available on Volvo excavators by 2024. The NorrDigi™ system uses a highly efficient multi-chamber digital actuator, which can eliminate much of a machine’s hydraulic assembly, including the main control valve, reducing the capacity of hydraulic pumps and the number of hoses and pipes on the machine. This system requires less energy, offering the possibility of reducing the size and power of the engines currently used in the machines.
- https://www.volvoce.com/united-states/en-us/about-us/news/2020/pioneering-electro-hydraulic-solution-significantly-improving-fuel-efficiency-in-construction-equipm/ – Volvo Construction Equipment and Finland’s Norrhydro have developed a digital hydraulic actuator that increases productivity while radically cutting fuel bills and CO₂ emissions in construction applications. The NorrDigi™ system uses a multi-chamber digital hydraulic actuator that improves system efficiency, allowing much of a machine’s hydraulic system to be discarded or downsized. It removes the need for a main control valve—the heart of a traditional hydraulic system—along with excessive pump capacity, piping, and hoses. It uses less energy and offers the prospect for downsizing the engine capacity.
- https://www.powermotiontech.com/hydraulics/hydraulic-pumps-motors/article/21265137/danfoss-power-solutions-digital-hydraulics-improve-excavator-efficiency – Danfoss Power Solutions has advanced its digital pump technology, Dextreme, to improve excavator efficiency. In 2022, research demonstrated that pairing a Dextreme digital pump with an electric motor reduced energy consumption by up to 24.8% compared to traditional hydraulic pumps. This reduction enables the use of smaller batteries, addressing challenges in electrifying off-highway equipment. Danfoss is testing this technology in partnership with Ashcourt Group, equipping Volvo EC200 excavators with the Dextreme Swap system to assess performance in real-world applications.
- https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/4/1348 – Hydraulic hybrid drivetrains, implemented in automobiles, present a popular alternative to conventional drivetrain architectures due to their high energy savings, flexibility in power transmission, and ease of operation. Hydraulic hybrid drivetrains offer multiple environmental benefits compared to other power transmission technologies. They provide heavy-duty vehicles, e.g., commercial transportation, construction equipment, wagon handling, drilling machines, and military trucks, with the potential to achieve better fuel economy and lower carbon emissions. Despite the preponderance of hydraulic hybrid transmissions, state-of-the-art hydraulic hybrid drivetrains have relatively low efficiencies, around 64% to 81%. This low efficiency is due to the utilization of conventional variable displacement pumps and motors that experience high power losses throughout the drive cycle and thus fail to maintain high operating efficiency at lower volumetric displacements. This work proposes and validates a new methodology to improve the overall efficiency of hydraulic hybrid drivetrains by replacing conventional pump/motor units with their digital counterparts. Compared to conventional pump/motors, the digital pump/motor can achieve higher overall efficiencies at a wide range of operating conditions. A proof-of-concept digital pump/motor prototype was built and tested. The experimental data were integrated into a multi-domain physics-based simulation model of a series hydraulic hybrid transmission. The proposed methodology permits enhancing the overall efficiency of a series hydraulic hybrid transmission and thus allows for energy savings. Simulating the system at moderate load-speed conditions allowed achieving a total efficiency of around 89%. Compared to the average efficiency of the series hydraulic hybrid drivetrains, our simulation results reveal that the utilization of the state-of-the-art digital pump enables improving the total efficiency of the series hydraulic hybrid drivetrain by up to 25%.
- https://www.all-about-industries.com/digital-hydraulics-increasing-efficiency-reducing-emissions-a-3629625ac8daed1646d08a9d87245977/ – Digital hydraulics increases machine efficiency and reduces emissions by up to 50 percent. There are three variants of the technologies. Alessandro Carmona from Danfoss Power Solutions explains how they work and when it’s better to electrify in a guest contribution. According to the International Energy Agency, the highly criticized aviation sector caused nearly 1,047 million US short tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2023. At the same time, a calculation supported by the fluid power industry, universities, and the European association CETOP shows that emissions from fluid-powered machinery amount to approximately 2,032 million US short tons of CO₂ per year—almost double the emissions of global aviation and five percent of global energy-related emissions. Even more astonishing is that over 40 percent of emissions from fluid-powered machinery (around 845 million US short tons) are due to losses. Useful work accounts for about 675 million US short tons of emissions, while electrical/combustion losses are responsible for 511 million US short tons of emissions. The good news is that we have the opportunity to significantly reduce emissions, particularly in industrial hydraulics. The decarbonization of fluid power is achievable through energy-efficient digital hydraulics. With new components, systems, and architectures, efficiency can be increased by 50 percent and emissions reduced by one-third. Let’s take a closer look at how this is possible.
- https://www.climatiq.io/data/emission-factor/f63b4301-49dd-4a26-a374-baf3007321a7 – Emission Factor: Fluid power pump and motor manufacturing | Equipment | Machinery | United States of America (the) | Climatiq. Source Dataset | Supply Chain Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors v1.2 Region | United States of America (the) (US) Unit Type | Money Year | 2019 Year Released | 2023 Emission Factor | CO₂e0.274kg/usd CO₂0.245 kg/usd CH₄0.00075 kg/usd N₂O0.0000162 kg/usd CO₂e of other gases0.005708 kg/usd LCA Activity | cradle_to_shelf CO₂e Calculation Origin | Source CO₂e Calculation Method | AR4 Supported CO₂e Calculation Method | AR4, AR5, AR6 Data Versioning | Status: Current
Noah Fact Check Pro
The draft above was created using the information available at the time the story first
emerged. We’ve since applied our fact-checking process to the final narrative, based on the criteria listed
below. The results are intended to help you assess the credibility of the piece and highlight any areas that may
warrant further investigation.
Freshness check
Score:
8
Notes:
The narrative appears to be original, with no evidence of prior publication. The earliest known publication date of similar content is October 12, 2021, when Danfoss announced a new leadership team, including Alessandro Carmona as President of Industrial. ([danfoss.com](https://www.danfoss.com/pt-br/about-danfoss/news/dps/danfoss-power-solutions-announces-new-leadership-team-and-structure/?utm_source=openai)) The report is based on a press release, which typically warrants a high freshness score. No discrepancies in figures, dates, or quotes were found. The content does not appear to be recycled or republished across low-quality sites or clickbait networks. The inclusion of updated data alongside older material suggests an effort to provide current information, justifying a higher freshness score. However, the presence of older material may still warrant caution.
Quotes check
Score:
9
Notes:
The direct quotes from Alessandro Carmona are unique to this report, with no identical matches found in earlier material. This suggests potentially original or exclusive content. No variations in quote wording were noted.
Source reliability
Score:
7
Notes:
The narrative originates from Fluid Power World, a publication focused on fluid power technologies. While it is a specialised outlet, it is not as widely recognised as major news organisations. Alessandro Carmona is identified as the President of Industrial at Danfoss Power Solutions, a reputable company in the industry. However, the report’s reliance on a press release from Danfoss may indicate a potential bias, as it presents the company’s perspective without external verification.
Plausability check
Score:
8
Notes:
The claims regarding the efficiency improvements and CO₂ emission reductions achievable through digital hydraulics are plausible and align with existing industry knowledge. Similar studies have estimated that fluid-powered systems consume between 2.0 and 2.9 Quads of energy per year, producing between 310 and 380 million metric tons of CO₂. ([ornl.gov](https://www.ornl.gov/publication/estimating-impact-energy-emissions-and-economics-us-fluid-power-industry-0?utm_source=openai)) The narrative lacks specific factual anchors, such as names, institutions, and dates, which could enhance credibility. The language and tone are consistent with industry reports, and there are no excessive or off-topic details. The tone is formal and appropriate for a corporate report.
Overall assessment
Verdict (FAIL, OPEN, PASS): OPEN
Confidence (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH): MEDIUM
Summary:
The report presents plausible claims about the benefits of digital hydraulics for industrial decarbonisation. While the content appears original and includes unique quotes from Alessandro Carmona, the reliance on a press release from Danfoss introduces potential bias. The lack of external verification and specific factual anchors reduces the overall confidence in the report’s credibility. Therefore, the assessment is OPEN with medium confidence.
