Westport LD Juniper Engine at Globe 2012

Last week, Westport participated in the transportation pavilion at the GLOBE2012 Tradeshow, showcasing our Westport Light Duty Juniper Engine. Duran Cheung, one of the original engineers to work on the Juniper engine explains how the engine works and what makes it unique:

The Westport Engine featured at GLOBE 2012 is not the typical Cummins-based HD workhorse with which we’ve been traditionally associated. Instead, it’s the 2.4L Juniper Engine from the Westport LD industrial team, a spark-ignited, multi-port injected propane or natural gas engine. This 75 hp, 140 ft-lbs powerplant uses a Hyundai 2.4LiIndustrial engine platform, which is essentially the same block and head as a 2.4L Theta engine found on the Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima. Differences include a cast-aluminum intake manifold, the lack of a variable valve timing system for simpler and more robust operation, and hardened valve seats. Fuel system components from OMVL S.p.A., a Westport company, are used to fuel the engine. Development of the fuel system for the engine began in early 2009, and by mid-2010, the first complete Westport LD Industrial engine assemblies were rolling off the line from our assembly center in Busan, South Korea.

So far, this engine is used on over 2,500 Clark forklifts worldwide on their IC-line of trucks, from their C15 model to their C35 line. They’ve reported a significant increase in fuel economy when compared to other engine platforms they’ve used in the past with similar displacement. Also, drivers have reported better performance compared to previous Clark trucks, all while remaining below the strictest Tier 4 EPA emissions levels for large spark ignited off-road engines.

On another application, the engine is being used to power stationary hydraulic pumps in and around the oilfields of Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. The engine is mated directly to a hydraulic pump that powers a screw pump to bring up crude oil from reserves underground. End users have reported over a 30% increase in fuel economy when compared to the previous engine platforms being used in a similarly loaded well-site[NA1] . The end customer has been quite pleased with the performance and robustness of the system so far and is currently ordering the stationary engine configuration which has recently gone into production