OptiFuel to repower Argentina’s 400 freight locomotive fleet from diesel-power to CNG and/or RNG

OptiFuel Techniques has signed a Collaboration Settlement with the Argentina Ministry of Transportation by Ferrocarriles Argentinos Sociedad del Estado (FASE). The target of this settlement is to develop a mission to repower and put into service 400 switcher and line-haul freight locomotives, all 100% powered by compressed pure gasoline (CNG) and/or renewable pure gasoline (RNG) with low or zero emissions, consistent with the Argentina’s decarbonization targets.

Argentina has prioritized authorities and public funding to develop the share of freight shipped by rail all through the nation. Over the following ten years, Argentina plans to modernize and decarbonize its total 40,000-mile rail community.

Conventional locomotives run on diesel gasoline, emitting excessive ranges of NO_x, PM, and CO₂. OptiFuel’s rail engine options are powered by their EPA-certified locomotive CNG/RNG engine rated at 0.00 g/bhp-hr for NO_x, 0.000 g/bhp-hr for PM, and damaging CO₂ utilizing RNG.

OptiFuel is growing modular repower kits for diesel locomotives and new locomotives in all lengths, horsepower ranges, and observe gauges. For Argentina, OptiFuel will construct locomotive kits within the US that will likely be shipped for native meeting in Argentina, creating new jobs and enhancing enterprise in each nations.

These kits will embrace OptiFuel’s zero emission CNG/RNG engines pods in a hybrid configuration (1500hp – 4500hp); locomotive management modules; and onboard CNG/RNG storage pods that may carry as much as 2,000 diesel gallon equivalents (DGEs) of pure gasoline.

OptiFuel may even present powered tender vehicles (3,000 hp) that may carry 11,500 DGEs of CNG/RNG and assemble an estimated 12-15 CNG gasoline stations alongside Argentina’s rail community, every with the capability to refuel a young automotive in lower than an hour.

We didn’t have a look at one railroad and even one nation. We stepped again even additional and requested: How can we affordably combine new expertise and required infrastructure into the world’s large railroad networks in a means that’s gradual, versatile, dependable, and inexpensive? The primary problem was incorporating fashionable expertise with out sacrificing reliability. The second problem was engineering flexibility into the system—railroads had completely different efficiency wants and entry to completely different sources of energy. Then there was the problem of latest expertise. The common locomotive operates for greater than 40 years. If we had been going to start including the most recent expertise, we needed to do it in a means during which updates and upgrades could possibly be made effectively and affordably. This led us to OptiFuel’s modular, inexpensive designs.

—Scott Myers, President of OptiFuel

It’s OptiFuel’s place that RNG and inexperienced hydrogen are probably the most possible zero-emission options for switcher locomotives, with RNG main from a price and accessibility perspective. For line-haul operations within the US, RNG is the one sensible zero-emission diesel-alternative answer. The rationale for that is that RNG requires 2.5 occasions the quantity to retailer vitality versus diesel, and hydrogen requires 11 occasions the quantity, whereas lithium batteries require 50 to 75 occasions. Because of this the typical 150-car prepare must change virtually 50% of the vehicles with battery tenders.

Batteries are poor vitality storage options for heavy horsepower use, they usually require frequent recharging with conventional electrical energy. The vitality coming from the nation’s electrical energy grid nonetheless emits massive quantities of standards and GHG emissions. Because of this, changing diesel locomotives with 100% battery-electric energy would emit extra CO₂ into the ambiance over a 10-year interval than working 100% diesel over the identical interval, Optifuel says.

As well as, batteries begin degrading the second they’re employed and are a really costly storage answer with a brief life. With the precarious availability of conventional grid energy, and no business options for “finish of life recycling or disposal” of huge multi-megawatt battery packs, this creates an actual downside for the entire life cycle price and sustainability targets for railroads.