After industry leaders recently converged on the 26th Supercharging Conference, our CEO, Paul Dowman-Tucker reviews the highlights – including the role of eTurbo systems in enabling future fuels!

It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was in Dessau for the bi-annual Gas Engine conference which I briefly reported on in our May newsletter. Well, it was certainly good to be amongst other industry specialists again at the annual Supercharging conference which is held annually in Dresden. Directly mirroring the engine conference, this conference, which focuses on both turbocharging and supercharging systems, had a significant Hydrogen focus although with the inclusion this time of fuel cells as a topic.

Both electrically supported and advanced mechanical turbo systems were described and compared and it was encouraging once again to learn that Bowman is not alone in recognizing the significant potential for electrified turbo systems to be an enabler for the transition to future fuels, both with combustion engines and fuel cells.

Some notable learnings and developments from the conference which pricked my interest in particular included:

• The range of turbocharging solutions being developed by #Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG in respect of applications on fuel cells and combustion engines considering current gas and liquid fuels as well as Hydrogen, Methanol and Ammonia.
• The work being undertaken by #Accelleron (formerly ABB Turbocharging) on the specific thermodycnamic needs of Ammonia and Hydrogen as combustion engine fuels. A topic Bowman has also highlighted in the past. The Accelleron team have performed some interesting sensitivity studies to examine the effect of the turbocharging solution on specific engine parameters.
• With a focus on the automotive (passenger car and light commercial vehicles) market, #Garret Motion have completed some interesting work on how future emissions legislation will increasingly look at specific time variable emissions when setting limits for new power units. Engine manufacturers have to look at the balance between handling these requirements between the raw combustion engine emissions themselves and the exhaust aftertreatment system – we all have these in our cars to some degree already. Electrified turbomachinery can specifically help with the raw combustion emissions potentially resulting in simpler/lesser requirements for aftertreatment.
• #Liebherr presented some interesting analysis in respect of the development of a hydrogen combustion engine for off-road applications – notably construction machinery. The main take away from this is that if hydrogen combustion solutions can be practicably achieved – fuel storage in sufficient capacity being a main consideration, as well as supply – then it provides a very fast route to market for a low emission solution. This being because very little has to change from existing combustion engine based equipment/machinery designs.
• Finally, #KBB presented further compelling arguments in support of the more or less inevitability that combustion engines will be an important part of the power and propulsion solution space for some considerable time to come (decades) – in particular for the large engine sector.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list of the topics and it was great to see just how much work is going on in this area at present, particularly given current global events and the extreme pressure on energy prices. If anything, these conditions should motivate faster development in respect of the energy transition in that future systems with significant renewable content are intrinsically more secure. In fact, looking for a positive in the current crisis, it might be found in the additional urgency with which government and industry push forward with finding better and cleaner energy solutions.

Bowman is very proud to be working as a part of this with its TorqIQ® technology and eTurbo Systems products.