Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2024 - 14

Karno is a linear heat generator consisting
of four shafts that combined produce 200 kW.
HYLIION
shifts focus
from
propulsion
to power
generation
Prime power and EV charging are two areas that can benefit from the Karno
linear generator beginning later this year.
by Ryan Gehm
H
yliion acquired the Karno generator technology
from GE Additive in August 2022 to employ
as a fuel-agnostic power system on its
Hypertruck platform, which was revealed as
a demonstration vehicle at the Advanced Clean
Transportation (ACT) Expo in Anaheim, California, in
May 2023. What a difference a half-year makes.
The Austin, Texas-based company changed its vehicle-propulsion
strategic focus in October 2023 to concentrate
solely on stationary power generation applications.
" This is a solution that we see being able to solve
distributed power generation, where you make your
own electricity onsite and reduce your dependency on
the grid, " Hyliion founder and CEO Thomas Healy said
in mid-December during a virtual " tech fireside chat. "
" We do still have the Hypertruck technology, but
we've put that on the shelf and saved it for later, " he
said, adding that the company will continue to evaluate
the market for opportunities to bring the Karno
generator back into the vehicle space " when the time
is right. " He cited the marine and freight-rail sectors as
other use cases that could be explored in the future.
" A lot of locomotives today are using diesel gensets
that convert [diesel fuel] into electricity, and then it's
an actual electric-drive locomotive, " Healy said. " A lot
of those players have also started experimenting with
hydrogen and fuel cells. We see the Karno as a way
where you could make a fuel-agnostic locomotive and
power that off hydrogen, natural gas, diesel or whatever
fuel is available in that area. "
The unit reportedly can operate on more than 20
different fuels including ammonia, which is gaining
significant interest in the shipping industry.
" When we say 'fuel agnostic,' we mean part-number
identical, " said Chief Technology Officer Josh Mook,
who also participated in Hyliion's virtual event to detail
14 February 2024
how the generator works and to present a side-by-side performance
comparison of the Karno and a conventional diesel engine. " More typically
when people refer to fuel-agnostic, they say the [engine] block is
agnostic [but] you need to go replace the head and the valvetrain and
all these other components. That is not our case. We really can handle
most of that in software by optimizing the fueling schedules and everything
to accommodate the different gases. "
Healy added that although some competitors say they can run on
hydrogen, it may only be up to a certain percentage. " That's not the
case for the Karno. We can run one-hundred percent hydrogen, " he said.
EV charging and other opportunities
Hyliion also hit pause on further development and commercialization
of its Hypertruck ERX renewable natural gas (RNG) electric range
extender, which received CARB certification as near-zero emission
vehicle (NZEV) technology, due to slower-than-anticipated market
adoption of electric trucks. One challenge limiting quicker adoption is
the EV charging infrastructure, an area that can benefit from the
Karno generator, according to Healy.
" EV charging, we see as a great opportunity, " Healy said, noting plans
to start customer deployments of Karno in the second half of 2024.
" They're trying to go out and deploy 50 EV charging pedestals;
they're going to their utility provider and their utility's telling them,
'Come back in three years and maybe we can give you a grid interconnect,' "
Healy said. " Or there was another instance where the utility just
flat out said, 'Until we start building more power plants, we are not going
to have the capability of putting an EV charging site at your location.'
These are some of the pain points that EV charging sites are facing. "
" They're looking at Karno as a way to not only deploy the EV
charging setup faster - because you're [essentially] just bringing
your own power plant and putting it on site - but also offer the ability
to be fuel-flexible as well as have a very high efficiency level and
lower costs of electricity generation in most instances, " Healy added.
Prime power is another " massive market opportunity, " Healy said.
Hospitals, hotels and warehouses, for example, can use the Karno
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
HYLIION
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2024

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