Source: Ricardo

Powertrain technology developer Ricardo is launching spinoff Dolphin N2 Ltd to commercialize its CryoPower cryogenic split-cycle engine technology. The Ricardo CryoPower concept has been under development for about ten years with the goal of increasing fuel efficiency and reducing operating costs and carbon dioxide emissions for long-haul trucks and other heavy-duty applications.

The technology has demonstrated the potential to reduce operating fuel costs by 20 percent and fuel usage by 30 percent relative to available heavy-duty engines (allowing for the financial and energy costs of the liquid nitrogen used by CryoPower in addition to its fuel).

CryoPower is based on the use of a separate induction and compression cylinder from that used for combustion and exhaust, enabling recovery of otherwise wasted exhaust heat to the working gas after the end of compression.

Compression is carried out isothermally, cooled via the injection of a small amount of liquid nitrogen. The liquid nitrogen serves as both a coolant and an additional energy vector, which offsets some of the fuel requirements. The combustion process consumes either renewable or traditional fuels, liquid or gaseous, and delivers heat energy back to the chilled and compressed intake air.

In a heavy-duty truck application Ricardo estimates that CryoPower would provide potential operator savings of approximately £9,000 ($12,500) per year for each vehicle, or £180,000 ($250,000) per MW in a distributed power generation application.