WinGD develops flexible injector system for future fuels

WinGD’s fuel flexible injector installation on RTX-6 test engine

WinGD (Winterthur Gas & Diesel) has developed a flexible fuel injection system that will play a crucial role in its investigations into how to harness low-carbon liquid fuels.

The system features an adjustable needle to allow for the injection of lower density liquid fuels, including promising alcohol fuels like methanol and ethanol, as well as conventional fuels including heavy fuel oil and marine diesel oil.

At present, notes WinGD, there is great uncertainty around the fuels that shipping will use to reduce its GHG emissions. Several of the candidates are unconventional liquid fuels including alcohols and synthetic diesel produced from biomass or renewable electricity. These will require different injection strategies than, for example. LNG, which is already used in WinGD’s X-DF engines.

WinGD Future Technologies Team Leader, Andreas Schmid, said: “The injection system is the most challenging element of designing an engine for low-carbon fuels, so this experimental design will give us an important head start. Once we know what fuels are likely to be used, we will be able to use this concept as a starting point to develop more tailored injection concepts.”

WinGD installed the fuel flexible injector on its RTX-6 engines in order to test ethanol combustion. Among other findings, the company has confirmed that ethanol fuel (with a small amount of diesel injected as a pilot fuel) reduces the formation of NOx and smoke emissions.

WinGD is currently involved in several projects investigating new liquid fuels, including the FALCON project to develop a carbon-neutral alternative to HFO from lignin, a component of sap found in trees and plants. The fuel-flexible injection system will now become part of the company’s toolbox for validating low-carbon alternatives to help shipping meet its greenhouse gas reduction objectives.