Mon, February 25, 2013 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM CHEMICAL & BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING BUILDING. FREE. Title: Natural Gas for Transportation - Opportunities and Technologies
Speakers: Dr. Gord McTaggart-Cowan and Dr. Ning Wu
Location: 102-2360 East Mall, Vancouver BC
Chemical Biological Engineering Building
Abstract:
Natural gas has many benefits as a fuel for internal combustion engines. In general, it is cleaner burning than equivalent liquid fossil fuels. In North America, it is also significantly cheaper per unit energy, providing a compelling economic case for natural gas use in transportation. It is also a ‘domestic’ resource, with recent advances in extraction techniques greatly increasing the amount of unconventional natural gas in North America that is economically recoverable. However, to maximize the benefits of natural gas and to encourage the shift to natural gas fuelling of vehicles, careful optimization of the engine system is needed. This includes both optimizing the engine performance for natural gas as well as selecting the appropriate engine technology. Fundamental research is critical to optimizing engine performance while reducing emissions for all natural gas fuelling strategies. For high fuel consumption applications, such as large transport trucks, the principal requirements are to maintain diesel loads while minimizing fuel consumption. Minimizing fuel consumption also helps to reduce emissions, in particular of greenhouse gases.
One engine technology that burns natural gas while achieving diesel-like performance and efficiency is high pressure direct injection (HPDI) of natural gas. HPDI, first developed at UBC, has been successfully commercialized by Westport Innovations Inc. Westport has grown from a few UBC researchers to a global company, with around 1000 employees worldwide and a reputation as the leading developer of natural gas engine technologies. This seminar will provide an overview of some of the main factors driving the current interest in natural gas as a vehicle fuel, followed by a review of the technological options in the context of appropriate applications. A more detailed review of HPDI of natural gas will then be provided, with a particular focus on the results developed in collaboration with researchers at UBC.
Contact: cerc@cerc.ubc.ca