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MATTHEW HART, MANAGER & PLATFORM LEADER, MARINE & STATIONARY POWER SYSTEMS, WABTEC fuel blends up to 100% are in operation maintenance intervals to make sure that What’s the biggest challenge today, running on both biodiesel and re- our engines don’t have to be touched in your job?

newable diesel blends. Wabtec also is in- from a maintenance perspective to allow

The ever-changing regulatory land- vesting in low carbon fuel technologies longer unmanned operation. In 2022 we scape on fuels and making sure that we through its’ alternative fuels programs released a new technology to our engine, are ready when the “green-fuel” supply that includes the use of hydrogen, meth- an automated blow-down strategy to al- chain catches up to the desire to transition.

anol, and ammonia fuel. The L/V250 low an unmanned engine room.

engines are designed with the features, like 250bar ? ring pressure capability, that allow for minimally invasive engine adaptations (top deck and fuel system) of the engine when transitioning to low carbon fuels if and when our customers operations support the introduction of such fuels. One example of this is the single cylinder and combustion model- ing research and development we are conducting with Oak Ridge National

Lab and Argonne National Lab.

With alternative fuels come a new set of technical consider- ations. When you look at the adoption of alternative fuels, where do you see the need to explore potential points of weakness?

One of the big components is going to be the cylinder head based on the re- quirements of a customer for multi fuel use. The substitution ratios they require is going to determine what kind of fuel injection system is used – port, low or medium pressure fuel injection, high pressure direct injection – that’s going to dramatically change the fuel injec- tion technology, and the cylinder head design could include multiple injectors.

Another big one is, depending on the injection technology and like we talk about hydrogen with high pressure, is driving towards a cryo fuel pump, which is something that does not exist in ser- vice. It is being invented by a number of companies, so that’s another key area that we’re investigating.

Is Wabtec preparing its en- gines for the advent of the autonomous engine room?

Absolutely. It is something that we’re taking to heart readily, designing for long www.marinelink.com 25

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