In concept, the Beijing-Qingdao Green Corridor project is similar to the Highway 401 project in Canada (earlier post), but on a much larger scale.

Phase 1, targeted to begin in December and run into early 2007, would bring in 20 heavy-duty trucks utilizing HPDI (High Pressure Direct Injection with diesel pilot) technology and the establishment of two Liquefied and Compressed Natural Gas (LCNG) stations, one in Qingdao and one in Jinan.

Phase 2, beginning in March 2007, would extend the corridor to Beijing, increase the number of HPDI trucks to 150, and see the construction of three more LCNG stations. In this phase, the stations would be open to commercial fleets using natural gas engines, thus fully utilizing the station infrastructure.

Phase 3 vision

Phase 3, beginning in 2009, projects a widespread launch of heavy duty HPDI vehicles and the installation of 30 new stations, all to be functional by the end of 2009.

The project, if executed to plan, would represent a number of firsts:

• The largest deployment of heavy-duty natural gas engines in the world

• The first use of direct injection, natural gas engines in China

• The largest LCNG refueling network in the world, capable of supporting more than 15,000 vehicles.

Should all this come to pass, then China would also be creating an export market for Chinese-made natural gas vehicles and infrastructure components. (Westport, Cummins and Cummins Westport all have significant manufacturing and sales partnerships in China. )

From an environmental point of view, Westport projects that Phase 1 would eliminate more than 18 tons of NO_x and 350 kg of PM per year compared to a fleet of Euro 2-level diesel vehicles. With its larger geographic reach and increased number of trucks, Phase 2 would eliminate more than 130 tons of NO_x and 2.6 tons of PM emissions per year.

Westport’s estimates of emissions reductions in Phase 1 and Phase 2

High Pressure Direct Injection relies on late-cycle high-pressure injection of natural gas into a cylinder. The natural gas is injected at the end of the compression stroke, just like the diesel fuel is injected at the end of the compression stroke in a diesel engine.

HPDI: The diesel fuel is delivered just prior to top-dead-center, followed by the main fuel quantity of natural gas.

Natural gas has a higher ignition temperature than diesel (1,000° C vs. 500° C) and will not easily ignite at the temperatures and pressures in the combustion chamber of a normal diesel engine. To assist with the ignition of natural gas, HPDI precedes the main gas injection with a small injection of diesel fuel and using the same dual-concentric needle injector.

The diesel thus functions as a liquid spark plug, the combustion of which ignites the main combustion. Depending upon final calibration and duty cycle, natural gas displaces around 90-95% of the diesel fuel (on an energy equivalent basis).

The direct injection approach also eliminates both part-load throttling and limits on torque due to the onset of knock.

The result is 25%–35% better fuel economy, and better power and performance than existing natural gas engines, while delivering 50% less engine out NO_x, 85% less engine out PM and 25% less CO₂ than conventional diesels.

LNG provides two-and-a-half times the energy storage as the same volume of compressed natural gas (CNG), making it an attractive solution for heavy-duty commercial operation, and worth putting up with the additional demands on on-board LNG storage.

Westport is developing proprietary low heat-leak LNG tanks with integrated LNG pumps, higher pressure improved common-rail injection system for better combustion and emissions at all operating conditions, and a high reliability integrated fuel conditioning module (FCM) that monitors and regulates fuel flow to the engine.

The use of LCNG stations also the stations to be decoupled from a natural gas pipeline. LNG can be delivered by a variety of routes to the LCNG station, where it is dispensed in either form.

Westport’s vision with this project is ambitious—the possibility of 50% of China’s heavy-duty vehicle sales being natural gas by 2020. To put that in different terms, given the current growth rate of the heavy-duty market in China, that would put approximately 1.3 million natural gas heavy-duty vehicles in use (on road and off-road).

Were that to occur, Westport calculates, a reduction of 1.2 billion kg of NO_x and more than 23 million kg of PM could be achieved in 2020. That would also displace some 300 billion liters of diesel from 2006 to 2020, reducing China’s projected oil import requirements in 2020 by 14%.

At current pricing, that reduction in oil consumption would add RMB 110 billion (US$13.6 billion) back into the Chinese economy in 2020, and RMB 500 billion (US$61.8 billion) from 2005 through 2020.

The rosy financial scenarios presume that natural gas supply will not be a problem.

It is a bold plan that just might work.

The heavy-duty vehicle market, although growing fiercely, is still by its nature more bounded than, say, the market for passenger cars. From the points of view of environmental and financial impact, working with heavy-duty vehicles provides significant leverage. A heavy-duty truck, for example, can swill some 20–30 times the fuel of a passenger car. A really heavy duty vehicle such as a mine hauler can gulp down some 600 times the fuel of a car.

Changing the fuel and emissions characteristics of the heavy-duty market, in other words, provides a multiplier.

Westport is currently in the process of seeking partners among the government, vehicle fleets, station partners, LNG supply partners and engine manufacturers to give the pilot program a chance.

Resources:

• Proposal of Beijing-Qingdao Green Corridor Project