The company specializes in producing large, 450 kilowatt gas generators that turn biogas – carbon and methane emitted from waste sources like manure and trash – into power. These large 22 Litre engine power units are at work around the world – in a landfill gas generation plant in Scottsdale, Alabama and a pig farm in Vietnam, among others.
But when the company was approached by a Japanese customer to produce power from a much smaller generator using liquefied propane gas (LPG), it sought out a partner in Westport.
“We have experience manufacturing gas engine generators, but they are big structure engines based on diesel engines,” said Hanatech CEO Jeong Kyoon. “It’s very difficult to buy LPG engines in Korea.”
As a result of Japan’s 2011 earthquake and subsequent Tsunami, the country began to rethink its emergency power generation needs. Jeong says this created a demand for LPG-powered generators for internally displaced refugees to use for basic survival needs in temporary arrangements.
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| Westport's Jun Chung looks at a power generator with a 2.4L LPG engine from Westport. Westport has supplied the Korean-company Hanatech with the engine as a demonstration product. |
