In order to save energy and reduce carbon, many people want to make a fuss about truck fuel, and a company in the United States is ready to replace diesel with alcohol, so that trucks can operate normally by "high liquor".
Recently, startup ClearFlame Engine Technologies completed road tests of ethanol instead of diesel. In testing, ClearFlame installed the technology on a heavy-duty tractor using a Cummins X15 diesel engine, which then relied solely on E98 ethanol to function properly.
ClearFlame uses high-temperature stoichiometric combustion technology that uses higher temperatures to make high-purity ethanol burn like diesel. Tested on the Cummins X15 engine, the technology can deliver 500 horsepower and more than 3389 Nm of torque, 30% more than diesel engines, without the need for aftertreatment systems such as SCR and DPF.
ClearFlame claims that this technology allows diesel heavy trucks to use 98% ethanol directly, and even as long as the ethanol concentration exceeds 85%, the engine can operate normally. The halfway car ran out of gas, opened a bottle of vodka, and could run out of two miles...
The biggest advantage of this technology is that it can reduce CO2, NOx and particulate matter emissions, and reduce dependence on aftertreatment systems such as SCR and DPF. According to ClearFlame, switching to ethanol fuel can reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent per heavy truck and save $45,000 in operating costs. U.S. diesel trucks spend about $3.3 billion a year on reprocessing, and replacing diesel with ethanol could save the industry $2.5 billion in reprocessing costs.
ClearFlame is currently working with Cummins Corporation and the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory to continue testing trucks under various operating conditions in the first quarter of 2022 and plans to launch customer beta testing or user acceptance testing by the end of 2022.
ClearFlame has received $4 million in grants and two rounds of financing totaling $20 million, which is expected to support the commercialization of the company's engine technology for long-haul freight, agriculture and power generation.