Transportation
As a transportation fuel, Blue Fuel™ can be used in diesel engines as a diesel substitute; in gasoline engines as a blendstock with LPG; and in fuel cell vehicles as a hydrogen carrier for on-board reforming. Today, in the transportation field, Blue Fuel™’s greatest potential is as an ultra-clean fuel for diesel engines powering passenger cars, heavy-duty trucks and buses, locomotives, and ships.
Diesel engines are known for their superior fuel economy and, by burning Blue Fuel™ instead of diesel, can become even more efficient. The large-scale production of Blue Fuel™ could facilitate the shift to projected super-efficient diesel/electric vehicles, which will likely utilize only 35% of the gasoline equivalent per mile of today’s gasoline engine vehicles.
Blue Fuel™ is ideal for diesel engines thanks to its following features:
- Essentially no emissions of particulate matter and nitrogen oxide, and no emissions of sulphur
- High cetane number (>55), a measure of a fuel’s combustion quality
- Low cylinder combustion pressure and rates of cylinder pressure rise, resulting in low engine noise
- Peak output torque/power the same as for engines burning conventional diesel fuel
On the other hand, because Blue Fuel™ burns so cleanly, expensive exhaust after-treatment devices are not necessary. This point is particularly significant in Canada and the US because both countries have adopted highway emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles requiring that, by 2010, these vehicles be equipped with regenerating particulate filters, SCR catalysts with urea injection, clean-up oxidation catalysts, and ultra-high injection pressures (>2500 bar). The cost of these systems will exceed US$5000 and may be as high as US$7500. When additional time for maintenance of these systems is factored in, the cost of retrofitting an engine with a Blue Fuel™ fuel supply and injection system will be easy to justify.