GENERAL INTEREST / Westport Innovations announces Natural Gas Fuel
VANCOUVER, Jan. 6 /CNW/ - Westport Innovations Inc. (WPT.ASE) announced
today that its engineering team has developed a breakthrough mechanism for
delivering high-pressure gaseous fuel to an engine in a manner that is
efficient, simple, and can be delivered at a new level of price/performance.
The new system includes a hydraulically-actuated fuel pump designed for
compressed natural gas and a variety of fuel supply management controls
designed for optimization of safety, range and reliability.
The new hydraulic fuel pump is one of the most significant innovations in
the new system. Using roughly 90% fewer moving parts than previous pumps, it
takes up much less space in the crowded engine compartment. Because of its
simplicity and robust design, reliability and availability are expected to be
excellent - an important factor in the cost-conscious industrial market.
The new pump has excellent installation flexibility, and can be
configured to manage a wide variety of operating requirements. The new fuel
system will be incorporated into the natural gas transit bus conversions sold
to the University of California Berkeley Transit Fleet. In this application,
the fuel system will deliver natural gas fuel to the Detroit Diesel
Corporation 6V-92 engine at a constant 3,000 psi, over an operating range of
95% of the theoretical storage tank capacity (mass basis), at an energy cost
of 1% or less of the engine power, over a typical duty cycle.
The inventors of the new technology are Anker Gram and Stephen Noble, who
joined Westport with the merger between Westport and Anker Gram and Associates
Ltd. in July, 1997. Their wide experience in hydraulic pumps, combined with
Westport's experience in vehicle-based natural gas systems, has resulted in
patents filed in November, 1997 and, now, patents in the compressed natural
gas field as well.
Alexandra Cattelan, Westport's head of Application Engineering under the
Transit Bus Program, is responsible for implementing the company's new
products on the company's internal demonstration bus, and rolling the system
out to customers like UC Berkeley. When asked about the new system, she
commented ''Anker and Steve are to be congratulated on this elegant approach
to a complicated engineering problem. Mechanics and drivers are both going to
like this product, which will be easy to maintain and will give the driver
sufficient range, so that there is no need to change driving styles or routes
because of limitations of the natural gas fuel system.''
David Demers, Westport's President, commented ''The performance of the
fuel system will be tremendously important for the long term success of
natural gas in the heavy-duty industry. We're very pleased with the
engineering leadership we've been able to demonstrate in this area, first with
the development of our high-pressure pump for liquefied natural gas (LNG)
announced in November, and now the new compressed natural gas products. With
our High Pressure Direct Injection fuel injection technology, this gives our
company a second major technology platform for long term business
development.''
Westport is commercializing combustion technology called High Pressure
Direct Injection (HPDI), which is based on patents developed at the University
of British Columbia. HPDI allows heavy-duty diesel engines to operate on
cleaner-burning gaseous fuels, such as natural gas, without sacrificing
performance or fuel economy. This will allow diesel engines to meet the
challenging nitrogen oxide (NO(x)) and particulate matter (PM) emissions
targets set in the U.S. and Europe, as well as reduce carbon dioxide (CO(2))
emissions to meet proposed global warming initiatives. The Company's initial
product development program, for the Detroit Diesel 6V92 transit bus engine,
will establish the core technology on the road over the next two years. |
