The Leader of Clean Propulsion Technologies, Prof. Maciej Mikulski gave an invited speech about the project at the 9th International Congress on Combustion Engines in Poland last week, September 27th-28th. The strongest projects and programs from Europe and the US were on display at this conference.
“It was a very interesting experience to benchmark our Finnish powertrain development initiative against similar programs from other EU countries and the Americas. The bottom line from all presentations is that the combustion engine era is far from over and new carbon neutral fuels together with hybridization are the way to go forward. Clean Propulsion Technologies project fits well into this” says Mikulski.
Mikulski started his presentation by introducing the premise for the project. He noted that tightening emission legislation was a significant driver for this project. Both marine and off-road sectors experience this tightening from several directions simultaneously. Both sectors also have immense energy density requirements rendering full-electric drive a questionable solution for long-haul shipping and ultra-heavy duty working machines.
Mikulski also stated that for both sectors there is no clear roadmap on how to satisfy the legislative and economic constraints in the long term. On the other hand, the transition in marine and off-road sectors is already happening and radically new powertrain solutions are needed already now if we want to seriously think about decarbonization.
Mikulski presented also the consortium partners, work packages, and the objectives of the project. According to Mikulski, the goal of the project is realized:
- In the short term, by moving the most promising innovative (TRL3) powertrain technologies to TRL5-6.
- In the long term, by maturing the common technological roadmap for the join marine and off-road sector.
Mikulski spoke about the main highlights of the various work packages of the project. “In roughly half a year from the project kick-off, we have met important milestones. Virtual twins of most parts of the advanced propulsion system foreseen in this project are functionally validated. As part of the rapid prototyping toolchain, they form the solution to the development time/system complexity dilemma that we face in this project,” says Mikulski.
Mikulski further briefly discussed the first version of the Clean Propulsion Technologies Roadmap and leaned on the current status of the project’s impactful demonstrators. The project aims to publish the full presentation on its website by November. Stay tuned!
