Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2024 - 15

POWER GENERATION FEATURE
Josh Mook, Hyliion's CTO, explains how the shaft operates
inside the linear motor to generate electricity.
Hyliion founder and CEO Thomas Healy discusses Karno benefits during a
virtual " tech fireside chat. "
generator as a primary power source and the grid becomes the backup
power supply.
Peak shaving presents another opportunity. " Throughout the day,
your power consumption fluctuates - in a facility, at your house. In
some instances, utilities will charge you more for when you're consuming
more power, " Healy said. " Peak shaving allows you to offset
that and keep your power consumption that you're pulling from the
grid more steady. "
" It's very different than a diesel genset, which you're only going to
really use if the grid's down and you need backup power - the maintenance,
the cost associated with those gensets just don't bode well
for prime power, " Healy continued. " With the Karno, it's more the
opposite; we think you should be running it continuously. "
In October 2023, Hyliion announced that its Karno generator
achieved successful grid matching in Ohio, a key step in validating
the technology's capability in grid-tied applications, Healy said.
During continued testing, Hyliion says it has demonstrated a distributed
grid model, where the Karno generator interfaces seamlessly
with the grid, matching voltage, frequency and power factor.
How it works
The Karno is a linear heat generator that is nothing like an internalcombustion
engine, Healy stressed: " It has superior efficiency. We're
getting near powerplant-level efficiency out of this small generator
that would normally take hundreds of acres out of a power plant. "
The system is made up of four major components: the linear motor,
a compression space, an expansion space, and the reactor. Inside of
the linear motor is a shaft that rides on air bearings - similar to how
a puck floats along the top of an air-hockey table, Healy said. The
shaft oscillates back and forth to create the electricity.
" To make that movement, we expand and contract a sealed gas
inside of the system. We do that through the compression and expansion
spaces, " Mook said. The reactor is where the fuel and air
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
Development of the Hypertruck Karno, shown as a demonstration
vehicle at the 2023 ACT Expo, has been " put on the shelf. "
come together and react using a proprietary flameless
oxidation process. " That heat is captured by our hot
side and transferred into the system, " he said. " We're
putting about 4,000 pounds of linear force in there to
move [the shaft] to the other side. "
In one of Hyliion's test areas, the experts demonstrated
the flameless oxidation process using natural
gas. " You can see all the metal components around
are glowing orange because they're so hot, but because
of that unique flameless oxidation process, you
really can't see a flame, " Healy said, which contributes
to lower emissions.
" Another interesting observation versus an internal-combustion
engine is you'll notice this process is
February 2024 15
ALL IMAGES: HYLIION
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2024

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