UK Company Lands Heavy-Duty Diesel Dual-Fuel Conversion Contract in Australia
12 January 2007
Clean Air Power, a UK company, has won a £1.5+ million (US$2.9 million) contract to supply between 50 and 70 of its Dual-Fuel natural gas/diesel heavy-duty truck engine conversions to Mitchell Corporation in Perth, Australia.
The order follows a trial on 14 Roadtrains vehicles (multi trailer vehicles running at more than 100 tonnes gross vehicle weight) that is producing annualized fuel savings of up to £40,000 (US$78,000) per truck.
Clean Air Power’s Dual-Fuel application enables diesel engines to operate primarily on up to 85-90% natural gas with diesel fuel acting as a liquid spark plug.
Customers benefit from a combination of low emissions and high efficiency. The Clean Air Power Dual-Fuel system starts out on 100% diesel fuel until engine coolant is at operating temperature. At full power, diesel fuel is 10% of total fuel. Normal operation is up to 85% natural gas substitution.
The Dual-Fuel ECU controls natural gas operation and modifies diesel demand for the diesel engine ECU. It will automatically revert to diesel only when gas supply is out of acceptable parameters. Clean Air Power recently added a combustion knock sensor to protect the engine from variable gas quality.
For its next-generation solution, the company is developing the MicroPilot system. Using smaller diesel pilot injections representing 1-2% of the total fuel, MicroPilot can reduce NOx emissions by more than 80%, while also reducing CO2 emissions.
With recent advances in diesel fuel injection technology, Clean Air Power believes that Micropilot could be applied to heavy-duty engines in the 2010 timeframe, with Euro-5 compliance and beyond.Clean Air Power supports both compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling systems.
Resources:
Clean Air Power Summary of Current Performance & Emissions Status and Future Potential (March 2006)
If CH4 is ultimately be biomethane , then it is a good step.
Posted by: allen_Z | 12 January 2007 at 09:38 AM
Isn't all CH4 biomethane, just the difference is how old it is? Natural vs. forced generation.
Posted by: Marc | 12 January 2007 at 05:14 PM
Natural gas is mostly methane. But it would be possible to make methane using coal, which is fossil and thus not bio. You would have to make methane out of a bio source, like biomass for it to be biomethane. Or the digesters that make methane from waste, but cleanup of hydrogen sulfide can be a problem.
Posted by: SJC | 14 January 2007 at 11:36 AM
Posted by: Veerachart Lohajoti | 01 August 2007 at 10:07 PM
There is a company that makes large amounts of natural gas(methane) and several other products including fertilizers from coal in North Dakota. It pipes and sells much of its CO2 production to Canadian oilfields for production of oil improvements about 200 miles away. Low grade coal is used from a local mine. It should have also included the facilities for the production of gasoline. Long haul trucks and railroad locomotives should all have the option of adding butane, propane, ethane or methane to its fuel mix where available. There is enough weight capacity on railroads to operated most locomotives for most of their trips on methane with one to ten percent pilot fuel. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 09 February 2010 at 10:28 AM