Libertine's Linear Power Systems are Advancing Clean Transportation in California

In April California regulators voted to ban the sale of new diesel trucks by 2036.

Last week I was in Anaheim at the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo to find out how manufacturers are planning to meet this challenge, and discuss the many ways in which Libertine’s Linear Power Systems can help.

What was most evident at the Expo was the vast range of component technologies in development and on display including e-axles, battery systems, range extenders and an assortment of recharging and refuelling solutions for fossil-free heavy-duty powertrains. ??This portfolio of new technologies ultimately needs to deliver commercially viable trucks and buses with the required range and operational flexibility of conventional powertrains, but without the net carbon emissions associated with fossil fuels.

It was also surprising to see the breadth of companies presenting and exhibiting, with Tier1 component and technology businesses outnumbering the major vehicle manufacturers, who in turn increasingly act as technology integrators rather than originators. This trend perhaps reflects the diversity, complexity and uncertainty of future powertrain technology solutions which make it unlikely that any one company will be able to establish technology leadership in all of its required key component technologies - or even to know for sure which those key technologies will be.

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Outside of the Expo, the daily journey by car to and from the Anaheim convention centre offered another perspective on the pace of change in the state that leads the world in Advanced Clean Transportation regulation. By my rather anecdotal reckoning, fewer than 1 in 10 cars here are fully electric. Of the trucks and buses I passed, none were battery electric or hydrogen powered. ?So whilst regulators are charging ahead, it seems that for consumers, fleet operators and vehicle manufacturers there is still hesitation when it comes to embracing a battery-electric future.

Some of the reasons behind this are well articulated by Hyliion CEO Thomas Healy in his keynote address. Thomas illustrated how the nominal battery capacity requirement for a short-haul battery-electric truck doing a regular 100 mile round trip route could be almost 800kWh, taking account of the multiple compounding constraints including depth of discharge limits, battery lifetime degradation, payload weight, weather and driving behaviour.

Mitigating these constraints by simply adding more on-board battery not only adds to the vehicle cost and reduces its available payload, it also relies on the roll-out of recharging infrastructure whose installation costs can be 1.5x the up-front costs of the battery truck fleets they serve, and whose power requirements – at 1MWe charging rate per truck – present major distribution and storage challenges that must be addressed before the electricity supplied can be considered renewable.

On-board range extender technology provides an alternative solution, with some important caveats;

• It must be compact and cost-effective, so that it can operate alongside a substantial on-board battery that can still serve much of the vehicle’s power and range requirements when recharging permits;
• It must be able to operate on conventional fuels that are available today, but have the flexibility to use renewable fuels as their distribution grows, and;
• It must be exceptionally clean and efficient to make the most effective use of precious on-board fuel when the battery is depleted.

Hyliion’s KARNO powertrain technology, which makes use of Libertine’s HEXAGEN Linear Generator technology platform, has been designed with these requirements in mind and was on public display for the first time at the Expo, featuring prominently in Hyliion’s on-stand vehicle exhibit, media event and keynote presentations.

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Libertine’s HEXAGEN hermetic linear motor-generator platform can be applied in a wide range of end products including heavy duty powertrains and fixed base applications to enable the creation of more effective thermal power generation, energy storage, waste heat recovery and gas compression solutions.

HEXAGEN shares core technology elements with Libertine's intelliGEN opposed free piston platform, and both platforms are a result of over a decade of development and performance validation of Libertine’s proprietary core technology elements including its linear electrical machines, controls and developer tools.

Libertine's HEXAGEN and intelliGEN platforms can form the basis for a new generation of efficient, cost effective and fuel-flexible range extender products; for new on-demand power generation solutions to support recharging infrastructure and back up intermittent renewables; for thermal energy storage systems that further extend the role of renewable power generation both on and off the grid; and for linear motor reciprocating compressors for more efficient compression of green hydrogen. The list goes on!

The ACT Expo provided a great opportunity to speak to our existing and future customers about Linear Generator technology, and what the future of Advanced Clean Transportation could look like when powertrain electrification is accelerated using clean power from renewable fuels.