Ecomotive Solutions, a company of the Holdim Group, recently presented the results of a road test of its d-gid dual-fuel electronic platform applied to an Iveco Stralis 450 Euro 5, fueled with methane (both gaseous and liquid) and diesel. The tests, conducted as part of a project sponsored by the Brescia Industrial Association, the CSEAB consortium and the FAI of Brescia, with the participation of the University of Brescia and ENEA, had the objective of demonstrating the effectiveness of dual-fuel technology under real operating conditions.
The road test, conducted on the vehicle made available by Bresciana Ghidini Rok, after 12,500 Km (75% on motorways and 25% on trunk and mountain roads) recorded:
- an average saving in diesel of over 44%, corresponding to a reduction of approximately 18.8%* in fuel costs;
- no change in torque and power of the dual-fuel vehicle compared with diesel only;
- use of natural gas/biomethane and a lean mixture of diesel significantly reduced CO2 and Particulate (PM) engine emissions;
- engine noise was reduced by up to 5 dB thanks to the combustion of natural gas; and
- the oil quality did not deteriorate with the same progression as the original vehicle, due to the effect of an average decrease of 50% in the diesel soot deposits at constant operating temperature and pressure.
Participation in the project of the University of Brescia allowed the risk analysis of a liquefied natural gas (LNG)/diesel dual-fuel system to be carried out, demonstrating its intrinsic safety, while ENEA carried out research on the use of the methane-diesel mixture for professional road transport, aimed at demonstrating the environmental benefit of this retrofit solution, if applied on a large scale at the national level.
It should be noted that the d-gid (diesel-gas dynamic injection) dual-fuel platform developed by Ecomotive Solutions is capable of fueling a diesel engine simultaneously with a mixture of gas (CNG, LNG, LPG, biomethane, syngas, hydromethane, etc.) and diesel. Application of the d-gid system does not in any way change the nature of the diesel engine, maintaining the initial performance and efficiency; moreover, in the absence of availability of gas, the system automatically returns to operate with 100% diesel.
In Italy there is a network of installers certified by Ecomotive Solutions for the conversion of heavy vehicles with the d-gid dual-fuel system.
The d-gid dual fuel system is approved by the Italian Ministry of Transport for use on heavy vehicles up to the Euro 5 category, while the application for Euro 6 engines is already under development in the Ecomotive Solutions laboratories.
* data on the average cost of diesel and natural gas in the period November/December 2014.
