Westport and EDL of Australia to Study HPDI for Off-Road Engines
09 February 2005
More Westport news. Westport Innovations has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Energy Developments Limited (EDL) of Queensland, Australia, to explore together opportunities for Westport’s proprietary high pressure direct injection (HPDI) natural gas technology in off-road engine applications in Australia.
The Westport HPDI system directly injects a small quantity of pilot diesel fuel into the engine cylinder to provide diesel-like compression ignition for natural gas. This gives the engine the efficiency and low-speed torque advantages of compression ignition while using natural gas as the primary fuel.
EDL is a global independent power producer, owning and operating more than 60 power generation, renewable energy and waste fuel-to-energy facilities across Australia, the United States, Europe, and Asia with a total power generation capacity of 420 megawatts.
According to the EIA, Australia has the largest natural gas reserve in the Asia Pacific region, with an estimated 90 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). The most abundant reserves (40 Tcf of proven natural gas) are located offshore of the northwestern coast. Western Australia also supplies about 10% per cent of the world’s LNG.
Natural gas in Australia is one-third to one-half of the cost in North America, and a number of mine sites also have access to coal-seam methane (CSM) that could be converted to LNG. This price advantage over diesel fuel offers strong economic incentive for fuel consumers to consider ways to use LNG in their operations.
Australian mines operate a significant portion of the world’s mine trucks that typically haul over 200 tonnes per truckload. These vehicles utilize high horsepower diesel engines that generate upwards of 2,000 horsepower and consume large quantities of fuel as they operate around the clock, every day of the year.
HPDI promises to deliver the high performance and high efficiency requirements of off-road applications such as these mine trucks. With HPDI engines, approximately 95% of the diesel fuel consumed in a diesel engine is displaced with natural gas. A typical mine truck with a HPDI natural gas engines could achieve emission reductions of approximately 14 tonnes of nitrogen oxides, 650 kilograms of particulate matter, and 950 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year, according to Westport.
Using natural gas in mining operations and other off-road applications in Australia offers significant benefits in terms of fuel cost savings and emission reductions. We believe that HPDI is ideally suited to the demanding industrial environments such as mine trucks. With EDL’s customer base in the mining sector in Australia, and their interest to provide LNG fuel to these remote sites, we are encouraged that we will be able to build a strong business case for this initiative.
—Bruce Hodgins, Westport’s Vice-President for Market Development
DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Westport Innovations are also working together to develop and to deploy LNG (liquefied natural gas) fueled engines with high-pressure direct-injection (HPDI) technology in tractor-trailers. This project, part of the Next Generation Natural Gas Vehicle (NGNGV) program, is targeted at delivering a heavy-duty engine suitable for tractor-trailers than can be certified to US EPA 2007 emission standards. (Earlier post)
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