The big orange engine has carved out a piece of history as the first heavy haul engine in North America to successfully operate on natural gas. Its accumulated mileage to date is the equivalent distance of travelling from earth to the moon 544 times, or around the equator over 5,000 times – no short trip.
Today, fleets from across North America are carrying a wide range of loads from feedstock hay to milk, recycling products to diesel. Some of the fleets are hauling liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the same time as operating with it.
The trucks are driving through varying terrains including mountain ranges, sea level port drayage and prairie highways. In Colorado and Utah, fleets powered with the Westport 15L engine are climbing up mountain heights of 4,600 feet (1402 m).
Temperature conditions in which the Westport-equipped trucks operate vary from extreme winter lows such as those in Montreal, Canada of -22F (-30C) to California and Australia summer highs of 106F (40C).
In the past seven years since the first customer turned the keys on a truck with the Westport 15L engine inside, there have been few conditions, heights or weights that the first heavy haul natural gas engine in North America hasn’t experienced along the road of clean transportation.
“As we look at everything the Westport 15L engine has accomplished it’s not an understatement to say it’s changed the landscape of trucking,” says Konrad Komuniecki, Westport’s Senior Director of Operations. “It’s changed what the industry thought was possible in terms of the ability of natural gas engines to meet the demands of heavy haul transportation.”
The trucks are driving through varying terrains including mountain ranges, sea level port drayage and prairie highways. In Colorado and Utah, fleets powered with the Westport 15L engine are climbing up mountain heights of 4,600 feet (1402 m).
Temperature conditions in which the Westport-equipped trucks operate vary from extreme winter lows such as those in Montreal, Canada of -22F (-30C) to California and Australia summer highs of 106F (40C).
In the past seven years since the first customer turned the keys on a truck with the Westport 15L engine inside, there have been few conditions, heights or weights that the first heavy haul natural gas engine in North America hasn’t experienced along the road of clean transportation.
“As we look at everything the Westport 15L engine has accomplished it’s not an understatement to say it’s changed the landscape of trucking,” says Konrad Komuniecki, Westport’s Senior Director of Operations. “It’s changed what the industry thought was possible in terms of the ability of natural gas engines to meet the demands of heavy haul transportation.”
No comments:
Post a Comment