Browse Topic: Natural gas
Decarbonizing regional and long-haul freight is challenging due to the limitations of battery-electric commercial vehicles and infrastructure constraints. Hydrogen fuel cell medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs) offer a viable alternative, aligning with the decarbonization goals of the Department of Energy and commercial entities. Historically, alternative fuels like compressed natural gas and liquefied propane gas have faced slow adoption due to barriers like infrastructure availability. To avoid similar issues, effective planning and deploying zero-emission hydrogen fueling infrastructure is crucial. This research develops deployment plans for affordable, accessible, and sustainable hydrogen refueling stations, supporting stakeholders in the decarbonized commercial vehicle freight system. It aims to benefit underserved and rural energy-stressed communities by improving air quality, reducing noise pollution, and enhancing energy resiliency. This research also provides a blueprint
As we move towards sustainable transportation, it is essential to look for alternative powertrain technologies that might reduce emissions and depend less on fossil fuels. This paper offers a thorough analysis and comparison of several viable solutions along with their benefits, cost and conclusion for hydrogen fuel cells, solar cells, electric hybrid systems, compressed natural gas (CNG) and CNG hybrid systems alongside the latest proposal of using nuclear batteries. Hydrogen cars have zero emissions from their exhaust and can be refueled quickly, however there are some drawbacks like hydrogen production, storage, and infrastructure. The efficiency, affordability, and scalability of various hydrogen production techniques, fuel cell stack designs and storage technologies (compressed gas, liquid, and metal hydrides) are evaluated in this paper. Solar FCEVs on the other hand, are designed to utilize solar energy like Solar EVs but are very different in their operation and fundamentals
Innovation often comes a piece at a time, but what happens when you put all those pieces together at once? That is precisely the question Shell is attempting to answer with its Starship initiative. Now in its third iteration, Starship 3.0 Natural Gas continues pushing the boundaries of efficiency and emissions reduction by employing all currently available technologies and engineering advancements. The Shell Starship initiative was first launched in 2018 with the aim of setting new benchmarks for the commercial road transport sector. The Starship 2.0 managed 254 ton-miles per gallon for freight ton efficiency (FTE), which is 3.5 times the North American average. Additionally, Starship 2.0 recorded fuel consumption of 10.8 mpg on a cross-country run, which according to Shell is nearly double the current fleet average in North America.
Clean-burning fuels, aftertreatment and other innovations place the heavy-duty combustion engine on a low-carbon emissions trajectory. Agriculture, industrial, mining, construction, freight transport and other major global economy sectors rely on vehicle power to thrive. “Internal combustion engines - those powered by gasoline, diesel, natural gas or propane - really are key to our current economy, and we see [the ICE] as a key part of our energy future,” Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Engine Technology Forum, a U.S.-based educational organization, said during a September webinar. Hosted by the Engine Technology Forum, the “Taking Internal Combustion Engines to the Next Level” session focused on current and under-development innovations aimed at increasing engine efficiency and lowering emissions.
Hexagon Agility announced a collaboration with Norwegian EV transmission supplier Brudeli Green Mobility at the 2024 ACT Expo in Las Vegas. The partnership's goal is the integration of Hexagon Agility's CNG/RNG (compressed/renewable natural gas) systems with Brudeli's plug-in PowerHybrid system. This technology will reportedly offer fleets the capability to maintain diesel ICE duty cycles while providing fuel cost savings and help OEMs achieve global decarbonization goals. “The Brudeli PowerHybrid enables fleet owners to retain the power, performance and fuel cost savings offered by natural gas engines, while simultaneously harnessing the efficiencies of electric,” said Eric Bippus, EVP sales & systems development, Hexagon Agility. “We believe hybrids could play a role in commercial trucking in the future, and we are excited to take an active role bringing that to the market.”
Heavy duty engines for long-haul trucks are quite difficult to electrify, due to the large amount of energy that should be stored on-board to achieve a range comparable to that of conventional fuels. In particular, this paper considers a stock engine with a displacement of 12.9 L, developed by the manufacturer in two different versions. As a standard diesel, the engine is able to deliver about 420 kW at 1800 rpm, whereas in the compressed natural gas configuration the maximum power output is 330 kW, at the same speed. Three possible alternatives to these fossil fuels are considered in this study: biodiesel (HVOlution by Eni), bio-methane and green hydrogen. While the replacement of diesel and compressed natura gas with biofuels does not need significant hardware modifications, the implementation of a hydrogen spark ignition combustion system requires a deep revision of the engine concept. For a more straightforward comparison among the alternative fuels, the same engine platform has
In response to global climate change, there is a widespread push to reduce carbon emissions in the transportation sector. For the difficult to decarbonize heavy-duty (HD) vehicle sector, hybridization and lower carbon-intensity fuels can offer a low-cost, near-term solution for CO2 reduction. The use of natural gas can provide such an alternative for HD vehicles while the increasing availability of renewable natural gas affords the opportunity for much deeper reductions in net-CO2 emissions. With this in consideration, the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory launched the Natural Gas Vehicle Research and Development Project to stimulate advancements in technology and availability of natural gas vehicles. As part of this program, Southwest Research Institute developed a hybrid-electric medium-HD vehicle (class 6) to demonstrate a substantial CO2 reduction over the baseline diesel vehicle and ultra-low NOx emissions. The development included the conversion of a 5.2 L diesel engine to
Fuel system supplier Hexagon Agility is optimistic about the growth of CNG thanks to the introduction of the Cummins X15N engine. Though some OEMs have signaled that the end of the ICE age is nigh, reports of the combustion engine's death as the backbone of the commercial-trucking industry are greatly exaggerated. Battery-electric vehicles are seeing continued growth in various medium-duty and last-mile delivery sectors, but their lack of energy density and cost per have prevented them from gaining market share for Class 6 and larger commercial vehicles in North America. Several suppliers are anticipating that this trend will persist over the coming decades and are making major investments in the development of alternative fuel systems for diesel combustion engines. One such supplier is Hexagon Agility. Based in the northern suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina, Hexagon recently announced expansion plans of its Salisbury, North Carolina, facility to field orders and installations of
Customer preference towards quieter vehicles is ever-increasing. Exhaust tailpipe noise is one of the major contributors to in-cab noise and pass-by-noise of the vehicle. This research proposes a silencer with an integrated acoustic valve to reduce exhaust tailpipe noise. Incident exhaust wave coming from the engine strikes the acoustic valve and generates reflected waves. Incident waves and reflected waves cancel out each other which results in energy loss of the exhaust gas. This loss of energy results in reduced noise at the exhaust tailpipe end. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed silencer on the vehicle, NVH (Noise, vibration, and harshness) performance of the proposed silencer was compared with the existing silencer which is without an acoustic valve. A CNG (Compressed natural gas) Bus powered by a six-in-line cylinder engine was chosen for the NVH testing. After NVH evaluation, it was found that when using the proposed silencer, overall exhaust tailpipe orifice noise
With the advent of upcoming stringent automobile emission norms globally, it is inevitable for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to shift towards greener alternatives. Use of compressed natural gas (CNG) is a preferred solution as it is a relatively clean burning fuel and it doesn’t have significant loss in vehicle efficiency and performance. Modern day customers are more aware and sensitive towards vehicle noise, vibration and harshness (NVH). Hence, OEMs must cater to this demand through optimized design and layout. In a passenger vehicle, CNG is stored at high pressure and delivered to injectors after pressure reduction at a regulator. During engine idling, the opening and closing motion of the CNG injector generates back pulsation and these pulsations cause vibrations which may propagate through other components in the delivery path and perceived as noise inside vehicle cabin. To identify the frequencies involved in pressure pulsation, a 1-D simulation of CNG fuel system is
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