With a captive fleet going JAV <> MIA RT the GE locos can use up to 80% LNG. The other 20% Diesel is needed for ignition as LNG won't light off by itself. Interesting experiment which may save money ? Wonder if Brightline can get Siemens to modify its Chargers as well ? Nothing said in this link.
http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/north-america/florida-east-coast-railway-converts-locomotive-fleet-to-lng.html?channel=535
Why if Vantuono wrote this story does it use words like ‘lorry’ and ‘wagon’?
Overmod Why if Vantuono wrote this story does it use words like ‘lorry’ and ‘wagon’?
Probably because the magazine the article links to is for international audiences.
Jeff
blue streak 1Wonder if Brightline can get Siemens to modify its Chargers as well ? Nothing said in this link.
The Cummins QSK95 was design from a clear sheat with burning natural gas in mind. But it would be a spark-ignited engine:http://social.cummins.com/cummins-hedgehog-big-green/
Quote from the link:
Abundant supplies of natural gas are becoming more readily available at lower prices than diesel. That is expected to significantly increase demand for spark-ignited natural gas engines over the next several years. Leveraging the base architecture of Hedgehog’s diesel engine, the gas platform will be fully optimized to deliver market leading performance.
“The gas engines will not be just a derivative of the diesel engines, but uniquely designed for gas,” said Mark Levett, Cummins Vice President and General Manager – High Horsepower Business.
So the LNG version of the QSK95 would burn 100% LNG. I didn't find anything about rebuilding a QSK95 to burn LNG combustion-ignited. Technically it should be possible.Regards, Volker
VOLKER LANDWEHRTechnically it should be possible.
Technically for a variety of reasons it is NOT practical to compression-ignite cryomethane (or either injected or revaporized LNG) and there is more than ample proof in the literature why that is so.
Minimum promotion is about 5% in a practical engine, unless you go to laser ignition which has its own capital, operating, and maintenance costs. Much easier and cheaper, in a practical locomotive that must conform to emission requirements on either of its fuels and be easily and reliably started, to use a bit more diesel than the minimum in other designs. I think we actually described the technology used for the NextFuel system in a thread a few months ago.
It is technically possible in the same way GE and EMD are accomplishing it.
In the first post is already said that the 20% diesel are needed as LNG alone doesn't compression ignite. Sorry that I didn't repeat it.Regards, Volker
Sorry, I misunderstood the point you were making — not that a 100% compression-ignition engine can run on LNG, but that you hadn’t seen a QSK variant that was adapted to burn gas fuel without being spark-ignited.
I don’t recall seeing anything about a promoted-ignition dual-fuel QSK either; perhaps as they have not finished optimizing the large QSKs for freight service quite yet (does anybody have data regarding CECX 1919??) they are watching what happens with the relatively different EMD and GE approaches before deciding on one of their own.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.