Canada - Westport Fuel Systems Inc, the Vancouver-based fuel systems specialist has begun initial trials of a heavy-duty internal combustion engine running on hydrogen (H2) fuel, using its patented and proprietary High Pressure Direct Injection (HPDI) 2.0 system. This follows its joint research assessment report released in February 2021, with engineering and testing consultancy, AVL List GmbH of Graz, Austria, entitled ‘Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Analysis for Heavy Duty Hydrogen Fuelled Powertrains’ – see article in this issue.

Commenting on this project, David Johnson, CEO of Westport Fuel Systems said: “We believe H2-HPDI could be extremely compelling, with near-zero greenhouse gas emissions and much lower cost than fuel cell vehicles or battery electric vehicles, particularly for heavy-duty trucking and other high-load applications like mining, marine and rail that have come to rely on the efficiency, power, durability and reliability of diesel engines. While there is more work to be done, our initial test results are encouraging. This demonstrates the inherent versatility of our HPDI system to utilise a range of gaseous fuels and provide a long-term carbon-reduction strategy. We are confident there is a larger opportunity to further our extensive expertise with gaseous fuel combustion and engine management systems.”