More than anything else, the drive and power generation plants of the future will need technologies which meet the growing need for mobility, solve the problem of limited raw material resources and facilitate compliance with tighter emissions regulations. Legislators introduce ever stricter environmentally friendly emissions regulations for engines and production systems. At the same time, our customers’ demands on the efficiency and economy of our products increase. In addition, the demand for product innovations based on environmentally friendly technologies and alternative drives continues to grow.
Emission optimized engines
In most off-highway applications, the diesel engine is firmly established as a form of drive and propulsion. If that is to remain so in an age of dwindling fossil energy resources and growing environmental demands, then diesels must become cleaner. Over the service life of an engine - for example a series 4000 marine engine - the purchase price accounts for just around three percent of all the costs incurred. Fuel consumption takes up ninety percent of costs. That is why Tognum engineers are working on the task of integrating diesel engines and their exhaust aftertreatment systems into a single system. And in the future, our energies will also be directed toward this same complex of issues in the gas engine sector.
Bio-fuels for gas engines
Synthetic and bio-fuels are becoming increasingly common and the Tognum brand Series 400 and 4000 gas engines produced by MTU Onsite Energy are already available on the market to meet this development. Series 2000 and 4000 diesels can also operate with up to 7% biodiesel. The combination of combustion engines with electric motors and energy storage devices provides even greater possibilities for developing consumption- and emissions-optimized solutions across the entire spectrum of applications.
Clean power technologies
The development of clean power technologies will involve an increase in the proportion of energy produced by distributed generation plants just as it will see a growth in the importance of wind and solar power. However, wind and solar power supplies are subject to fluctuation depending on the weather. Tognum´s distributed plants from MTU Onsite Energy can smooth out these fluctuations and consequently, in future, combining different energy sources to achieve an ideal supply balance will be increasingly important.