The U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and Progress Rail and the Federal Railroad Administration will complete the third phase of a three-phase biofuel research project.
The agencies are using $750,000 in research grants to test a variety of biodiesel and renewable diesel fuels to lower the carbon intensity in the U.S. freight rail industry.
Testing will ensure the fuels can be used at a higher percentage without impacting engine performance.
Argonne scientists will test a variety of biodiesel and renewable diesel fuel on a single-cylinder locomotive test engine provided by Progress Rail to examine torque, power, engine thermal efficiency, and exhaust emissions.
“More specifically, Progress Rail and Argonne will focus on the short-term challenges of biodiesel and renewable diesel blends and their impact on engine operation, performance, and emissions,” Essam El-Hannouny, an Argonne principal mechanical engineer, said. “The freight rail industry is limited in terms of tools to decarbonize its engines, and these fuels will play an important role in lowering the carbon intensity of the fleet.”
In the first phase, Argonne scientists created a modeling framework of different combustion systems that improved on existing models. In the second phase, scientists used the models to build the single-cylinder engine Argonne will test.