Caterpillar has announced
plans to introduce LNG engines in its locomotives and
large mining trucks, seen here
at MINExpo in September.
of the puzzle that need to come
together for natural gas to be adopted
in mobile applications — favorable
natural gas prices, engine technology, equipment integration, fueling
infrastructure — and these factors are
coming together now.
“There really needs to be a sustain-
able trend, and that is what shale gas
has done. It is a sustainable trend
regardless of which projection you look
at. We’re very optimistic about the natu-
ral gas engine market. North America is
leading the way in terms of that growth,
driven by availability and price of gas.”
The first mining engine in the
Cummins Dual Fuel portfolio is the
QSK60, with other QSK Series engines
to follow. “In the mining market, we
work closely with our OEM partners,”
Balasubramaniam said. “When those
products will hit the market is something
our OEM partners will announce. But
from a program and engine technology
perspective, we are off and running.”
Cummins’ existing joint venture with
Westport Innovations is focused on
the on-highway applications below
12 L. The spark-ignited stationary
engines and dual fuel off-highway
engines sold by Cummins are devel-
oped entirely in-house.
“In many ways, equipment integra-
tion is a new challenge,” said Axel
zur Loye, technical lead for Cummins’
dual fuel programs. “Now we’re talk-
ing about additional space claim on
the chassis due to the natural gas
tanks. These are factors that the
equipment manufacturers have to
sort through and figure out how to
integrate them into equipment that is
already constrained for space.”
Switching over to natural gas has
been easier for some markets than
others. The oil & gas industry has the
fuel source right at the job site. It’s
natural that adoption would start there.
“Any application where you burn
a lot of fuel is attractive because of
the cost savings from natural gas,”
zur Loye said. “Mining fits that bill
because the engines are worked
hard around the clock. That is the
key consideration.
“The second thing is the fact that
the equipment is geographically con-
strained which gives companies the
opportunity to invest in the infrastruc-
ture to support natural gas. In an over-
the-road application you don’t have
control of the refueling equipment in
the way you would at a mine site.”
Control system engineering spe-
cialist New Eagle, Ann Arbor, Mich.,
works with customers worldwide to
help them achieve clean energy goals
in stationary and mobile equipment.
A few years ago, much of the com-
pany’s work went on electric and
hydraulic hybrids, but New Eagle
President Richard Swortzel said he
saw that business shift last year.
