Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2024 - 16

HYLIION
shifts focus from propulsion
to power generation
Metal additive manufacturing is used for critical - and highly
complex - components including the heat exchanger to enable
the flameless oxidation process.
continuous and complete, " Mook added. " It's not a
series of explosions like you would normally see [with]
internal combustion. " Running the process using a
conventional fuel like diesel is very similar to running
natural gas, according to Mook: " You're seeing a very
clean flame with minimal soot and particulate, which
just shows the cleanliness of this system. "
Enhanced durability and lower maintenance costs
are other reported benefits of the system design.
Karno will operate for about 20,000 hours before requiring
an overhaul, compared to a few thousand
hours for an internal-combustion system, according to
Mook. " This genset has no oils, no lubricants and it's
really designed to deploy it and then forget about it, "
Healy added.
The Karno consists of four shafts, each providing
about 50 kW of power output. The rough dimensions
of the 200-kW unit, which also includes DC to AC converters
as well as fans and radiator setup, is roughly
8-ft by 6-ft and 2-ft wide, according to Healy.
" Today we have these 200-kilowatt 'building blocks,'
is the way I think about it, " Mook said. " We assemble
those together into essentially whatever power level
that the application would call for. We're very excited
about the scalability of the system. "
Healy said that Hyliion's roadmap could include a two
megawatt-plus unit, which would be about the size of a
20-foot shipping container. " You would have a bunch of
those shafts on the inside and then combine together
the radiator fan cooling-loop system, versus in the
200-kilowatt boxes [in which] you have independent
cooling loops per each four-shaft setup, " he said.
Future developments also could include different
shaft sizes. " We do see an opportunity moving to 10- to
16 February 2024
Karno's proprietary flameless oxidation process is continuous and complete,
not a series of explosions like in an ICE, leading to a cleaner system, according
to Mook.
A typical component could have about 5,000 3D-printed layers at a thickness of
20 to 100 microns per layer, according to Mook.
25-kilowatt, more like a household generator size unit, " Healy said.
" People like the idea of not buying a generator for outside your house
that only gets used a couple hours a year - [instead] buy a generator
that becomes prime power and now the grid is your backup. "
For production units deployed later in 2024, Hyliion plans to design
and build the entire linear generator system in-house; the current
system demonstrated in the Hypertruck Karno vehicle features a
linear motor from UK-based Libertine. " That will give us the ability to
not only own the technology around the linear generator, but also to
have those three elements - the chiller, the heater and the reactor
- all be Hyliion components as well, " Healy said.
Karno vs. ICE and fuel cells
Mook mentioned that the Karno generator could use other sources of
heat to produce electricity, including nuclear, geothermal or solar. This
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
ALL IMAGES: HYLIION
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2024

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