Alternative fuel power plants in Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Over the past few years, autonomous power plants with gas piston engines have become increasingly popular in Russia and abroad. These units are easy to maintain and consume less fuel than traditional diesel units. In addition, on the basis of a gas piston engine, it is possible to assemble a combined station that simultaneously generates heat and electricity.

We talked with the developers from Transmashholding, the general partner of the Polytech 360 festival, about how a gas piston unit differs from a gasoline or diesel engine and whether it can be installed on an ordinary car. Our questions were answered by Alexander Terekhin, the head of the diesel engine development department at Transmashholding JSC, and Igor Ovchinnikov, the project manager for the diesel engineering development at Transmashholding JSC.

In essence, gas piston engines are conventional internal combustion engines that use gas to operate. The first such installations appeared at the end of the 19th century and were used mainly in factories to drive various production equipment. Later, they were mainly replaced by electric motors. They are also not widely used in transport. But in recent years, the popularity of gas piston engines has begun to grow. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is the rise in prices for liquid hydrocarbon fuels (gasoline, diesel). Today, gas piston engines are used in power generators, heat generators, pumps, compressors and refrigeration units.

N + 1: In which plants are gas piston engines used and why?

Gas piston engines are used in power plants of almost all applications: stationary engine-generators and power plants, locomotive, automobile, transport and technological (for tractors, quarry equipment) and others.

The reserves of natural gas in our country and in the world significantly exceed the reserves of liquid hydrocarbon fuels of all types. Naturally, the cost of gas fuel is significantly lower than that of liquid hydrocarbon fuel. In our country, many generations will be able to use this type of fuel.

What do such engines work on?

They use two types of gas fuel. Firstly, it is natural gas (it contains most of the methane), which we burn, in particular, in our kitchens. And, secondly, petroleum gas obtained from oil refining (it contains most of the propane and butane). It is the latter in a liquefied state that is mostly used as a motor fuel for cars or in cylinders for gas summer cottages.

Most industrial, truck and bus engines use natural compressed or liquefied gas. Recently, there have been proposals for the conversion of passenger cars to use natural gas.

How does such an engine differ from an internal combustion engine?

A gas piston engine is the same internal combustion engine, but with some design features related to the use of a different type of fuel.

First of all, a gas storage system and gas equipment must be mounted on the final product (car, diesel locomotive, etc.) to change the gas parameters (pressure, temperature) and supply it to the engine.

The changes in the engine itself can be divided into two parts. Those that belong to the first of them are of a constructive nature and relate to changes in the compression ratio, the design of parts of the cylinder-piston group, air supply and turbocharger settings and other elements. The latter are connected with the engine equipment with devices for supplying gas to the intake manifold or combustion chamber.

Is it possible to put a gas piston engine on a regular car?

Can. Many put on and ride with success. Such solutions are used in automobiles, tractors, locomotives, small deadweight commercial ships and other vehicles.

Transmashholding and gas engines

In 2013, a shunting diesel locomotive TEM19 was produced at the Transmashholding plant in Bryansk. This is the first diesel locomotive in the world whose piston engine runs on natural gas, the autonomous supply of which is stored in liquid form in a cryogenic container.

At present, TMH has begun a project to create a new gas shunting diesel locomotive TEM29 of increased power. Its design will be based on the principle of modularity of the main equipment. It is aimed at reducing the cost of the resources involved in carrying out maintenance and repairs during operation due to the use of aggregated repairs.

At its enterprise in Kolomna, TMH is implementing a number of projects using alternative fuels, mastering the production of a fundamentally new type of product - gas engines designed to generate electricity and heat in power plants for basic, backup and emergency purposes.

Currently, a 9GMG gas engine-generator for the TEM29 shunting diesel locomotive is under construction at the Kolomna plant.

The engines, created at the TMH Kolomna plant, will use diesel fuel, natural fuel or associated petroleum gas, as well as crude oil in the power range from 1000 to 3500 kilowatts as the main fuel.

TMH also intends to develop gas modifications of new diesel engines created during the implementation of the diesel engine development subprogram of the Federal Target Program "National Technological Base".

Why aren't these engines used universally?

It just so happened historically that different types of liquid hydrocarbon fuels are mainly used as motor fuel. A wide infrastructure has been created for them. Accordingly, in order to expand the use of gas, it is necessary to expand the infrastructure associated with its delivery to the place of refueling and, ultimately, to the place of combustion. This is now being actively pursued.

At the moment, the most promising for the operation of locomotives running on gas engine fuel is the non-electrified northern range of the Sverdlovsk railway. This region has all the necessary conditions: a flat profile, large volumes of cargo, the availability of cheap natural gas, as well as production facilities, on the basis of which the production of liquefied natural gas can be launched.

In general, the use of gas as a motor fuel in all types of transport and the creation of domestic gas transport and stationary equipment are of great importance today for the renewal of the rolling stock, which must meet international safety, environmental and reliability standards.

Why are they often used in small power plants?

It is profitable and economical. Fuel consumption and operating costs are important issues for the plant owner. A gas piston unit has a specific fuel consumption per kilowatt per hour produced under any load mode less than that of a gas turbine unit. This is due to the fact that the efficiency of piston machines is 36-45 percent, while for turbines it is only 25-34 percent.

The main advantage of gas piston engines over diesel engines is cheaper fuel. Even when a propane-butane gas mixture is used as a reserve fuel, the cost of a unit of electrical energy produced on a gas piston plant is 1, 3 times less than on a diesel one.

The operation and maintenance of a gas piston unit, in contrast to a gas turbine unit, does not require highly qualified engineering personnel. Routine maintenance, intermediate and overhaul repairs of a gas piston engine can be carried out at the site of operation without moving the unit to the site of the manufacturer or a specialized enterprise.

What is the reason for the growing popularity of gas piston units in recent years, despite the fact that the technology itself has existed for a long time?

Analysis of the consumer market for electric and thermal energy revealed that about 30 percent of consumers do not need tens and hundreds of megawatts of power and, therefore, mandatory centralized power supply, the total losses of which during transportation through the networks to the consumer are up to 25-30 percent.

In addition, users are not satisfied with the high cost of connecting to centralized networks, and in general, the liberalization of the energy market in Russia has led to a crisis in the operation of large centralized energy supply systems.

Gas piston technologies are well suited for small-scale power generation, very effectively implement the concept of "economical" power generation with minimal losses of generated heat and electricity. Local autonomous decentralized sources of combined production of electricity and heat based on gas piston plants have high efficiency, are completely independent of regional power grids, and, consequently, from the growth of tariffs, are reliable, do not require costs for the construction of supply and distribution networks.

Gas piston engines can be combined in series. What is the benefit of such consolidation in comparison with the separate use of installations?

Not only gas-piston engines, but also diesel ones can be combined into "batteries". It all depends on the features and requirements of the stationary power plant. In particular, very often individual modules can be delivered to the place of installation and operation only by helicopter. But there are special power plants, the main requirement for which is the maximum possible power in one unit.