Progress on the engineering of the conversion of diesel engines to run on a mixture of diesel and
hydrogen continues. It has been decided that proof of concept work on a complete diesel engine
will take place in the UK starting within the next month with the test engine now placed in the
test cell with installation of the gas detection system and hydrogen pipework completed. The test
cell is located within the engine test building at Helical Technical Centre, Warton, Lancashire,
which is also used by automotive companies such as Bentley, McClaren and Cummins.
It is intended that after the primary test cell work, testing will take place with a vehicle on a
rolling road. This complete vehicle test will allow a 360-degree examination of behaviour of the
engineering in a road going vehicle so that the benefits of Dual Fuel engineering can be clearly
demonstrated on a full working model, and technical data obtained for future use, before
commencement of Dual Fuel commercial retrofitting of trucks in Paraguay, still targeted for the
New Year.
The rolling road test will also act as a showcase vehicle for the European market to provide a
transitional and economically justifiable solution in progressive decarbonisation of road transport
when the cost and availability of dedicated hydrogen combustion fuel or hydrogen fuel cell trucks
remains very high, combined with the lack of hydrogen refuelling/re-charging networks. The
retrofit will enable not only the vehicle to run on a mix of hydrogen and diesel but also diesel
alone. As the hydrogen fuel tank is an addition, hydrogen will extend the existing diesel range of
the vehicle.
