A closer look to Baudouin PowerKit gas engines (Part II)

Baudouin PowerKit gas engines have been launched earlier this year by the French manufacturer. This is the second and last part of a technical interview with Richard Flynn, Product Planning & Development Director at Baudouin. Here you can read the first part of the article.

Gaseous fuel: is it just a matter of CO2 and fuel saving?

The environmental footprint is of course important, as emission regulations become increasingly more stringent. There are also many other immediate business advantages to gas engines. As underlined before, it can allow customers to maximize their resources in co-generation projects. The advantage for applications such as supermarkets and industrial plants lies in the ability to connect directly to the gas network without the need to store fuel onsite, reducing space requirements and safety considerations. This, combined with the high efficiency and low operating costs of every Baudouin engine, makes this new power range a game-changer.

The press release claims till 45% efficiency increase for Baudouin PowerKit gas engines. What’s the total efficiency in CHP mode?

We can achieve total efficiency greater than 90% in CHP mode with selected engines, which makes our products highly competitive.

Are there any variable speed versions? Or hybrid versions?

We are constantly evaluating market requirements and opportunities to offer the solutions that OEMs need. We are not currently working on releasing hybrid or variable speed versions, however, we will continue to assess the market requirements to ensure that, when the commercial opportunities and technical capabilities align, we can launch additional efficient power solutions to OEMs.

As Baudouin is part of the Weichai family, we have direct access to existing variable speed engines and new energy technologies, including fuel cells and hybrid electrical power systems. We will continue to reduce the emissions of our existing products, while pursuing alternative new energy solutions. 

Did you schedule some marine applications, i.e. for fishing boats?

Baudouin is taking our environmental responsibilities seriously, as such we were the first EPA IV and IMO III marine solution provider between 440-1214kW. The development of gas products for marine is under constant evaluation. Marine and power generation engines share the same block design and major components, so applying the gas technology to the marine blocks will not be difficult for us.

4M06. Is the 2.4L engine conceived by Weichai? What about the telecom market. Is the telecom market recovering in Africa, ME and Russia, after a period of slowdown?

As part of the Weichai Group, we are utilizing our combined knowledge, R&D and global infrastructure to deliver the right products for our markets and applications. 

Although some of the telecom markets in Africa and Middle East are seeing some turbulence, we see some positive signs, as more projects are being developed, in Nigeria and Libya for example. In these difficult times of the coronavirus pandemic, telecom installations and data centers which allow reliable, instant global connectivity have also been shown as critical national infrastructure alongside other utilities. The products that we are developing will continue to support vital sectors which the world needs right now, and into the future with the global rollout of 5G networks.  

The two new engine series for telecom and data center applications that we are launching this year are a tailored solution for these specific segments. We have worked on all significant aspects of these engines including maintenance schedules, starter redundancy, power density, single step load acceptance, and total operating costs.