Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2023 - 40

PERKINS
Q&
A
Perkins tackles decarbonization of
off-highway machines
Decarbonization is currently one of the biggest buzzwords in
the off-highway sector. OEMs around the globe are now offering
and researching solutions for their customers so that they
can meet future and current regulations for cutting greenhouse
gas emissions while still providing the required uptime
and capacity necessary to get the job done.
This was a major talking point at Bauma 2022 in Munich,
Germany, where Truck & Off-Highway Engineering had the opportunity
to sit down with representatives from Perkins. We
spoke with Mark Borst, global product marketing, industrial power
systems for Perkins, and discussed the company's electrification
strategy, how it intends to help its customers field zeroemissions
fleets and how they use data from the field to help
properly scale machines that will meet a customer's true needs.
What was the catalyst that led
Caterpillar/Perkins to develop an allelectric
solution?
It was a mix of customer demand and
looking into the future. We know that
our customers want to have zero-emissions
solutions, and we see electrification
as one aspect of that energy transition.
To provide those solutions, in addition
to our electrified products, we've
got a lot of flexibility to offer other
combinations and capacities. Our electric
solution is also completely designed
for off-highway applications. We're not
just taking an on-highway battery and
converting it. We've designed it for the
rigors of off-highway machines.
What other solutions are you currently
offering to customers who want to reduce
their carbon footprint?
Our [EU] Stage V diesel engines can run
on low-carbon fuels like HVO [hydrotreated
vegetable oil] and synthetic diesels.
Our lineup of Stage IV and V engines is
certified for HVO in North America and
the EU, and we will soon have an offering
for China in non-road IV [emissions standards]
as well. But we can already use
B20 and HVO in these engines as a direct
drop-in. For HVO, we can burn it at
100-percent or in any blend below that.
For engines sold in markets that don't
require aftertreatments, such as
Indonesia, we're capable of running on up
to B30 biodiesel. We try and meet the
40 February 2023
levels of the customers we have in various locations and make
changes to keep up with whatever new standards come along.
We want to continue supporting our customers with engines
that use fuels they can buy, because there's no point in
us having an engine that runs on a fuel they can't get ahold
of. It's also not just our Stage V engines that are HVO compatible.
That compatibility goes back to our Stage III engines. We
haven't just added HVO capability to our engines going forward;
we can serve customers by lowering the carbon intensity
of their current fleet not just in the future but also today.
Given the diversity of regulations for off-highway emissions
around the globe, how will Perkins continue to supply solutions
for all its customers while still aiming for net-zero emissions?
We're not trying to push a single solution to customers; we
are trying to offer a wide range of solutions.
We don't see a single solution
working for every customer all the time.
You can reduce your carbon footprint
by having current engines that have the
capability to run on other fuels and then
having electrified solutions means you
can get to zero emissions. We've also
continued to work on the hybrid solutions
we showed at Bauma back in 2019
(www.sae.org/news/2019/06/uniquehybrids-required).
Those powertrains
have a 20-kW electric motor that allows
us to run the engine in zero-emissions
mode or in tandem with the engine and
the MGU [motor generator] to support
it. So, we continue to refine those concepts
and the control systems behind
them.
Mark Borst, global product marketing,
Perkins industrial power systems.
" We don't see a single
solution working for every
customer all the time. "
What's the scalability of your batteries
and electrified systems you're
offering, and how are you managing
them from a functionality standpoint?
We're currently offering the 48-volt system
as well as the 300- and 600-volt
systems. We're seeing those as keynotes
for the industry for various reasons.
With the 48-volt system we can make
some things easier by using automotive-grade
components, for example.
One of the unique aspects of our battery
management systems is that our
BMS can talk to other batteries on the
same machine. So instead of having just
one battery on a single machine, we can
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
http://www.sae.org/news/2019/06/unique-hybrids-required
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2023

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