Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2024 - 17

POWER GENERATION FEATURE
" 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. " - Thomas Healy, Hyliion CEO
A pre-production Karno generator producing 125 kW of power output is nearly five times quieter than a 180-kW diesel engine. " We anticipate the Karno
deployed in a stationary production box with sound editing to be about 67 decibels at about six feet away, " Healy said.
capability contributes to the " future-proof " nature of the system, he said.
" We often talk about fuel as a source of heat, and that's because in
the infrastructure that we mostly have, that's the most practical, " he
said. " The system won't know the difference between heat entering
that comes from nuclear versus heat entering that comes from fuel
and a chemical release. "
The reactor is the only part of the system that would need to
change depending on the heat source, Healy added. " The heater, the
chiller, the actual genset, that can all stay the same because that
sealed middle section, all it needs is heat coming in and that's what's
going to make the electricity, " Healy said.
Hyliion quotes about a 50% efficiency for its Karno generator converting
the BTUs of a fuel or energy source into electricity. " If you
think about traditional diesel generators, it's not atypical that you'll
see half of that relative to our system, " Mook said. " It's a tremendous
step change that really moves the needle on things like operating
costs and fuel usage, as well as emissions. "
Healy responded to a question regarding the minimum and maximum
load for the Karno compared to about 30% to 80% for conventional
generators. " If you think about the normal efficiency of an inTRUCK
& OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
ternal-combustion engine, there's a sweet spot that
you would want to operate it in where you're going to
get most efficient use of the fuel, " he said. " We're saying
40 to 100 percent would be where you're getting a
pretty flat efficiency band with the Karno. This is great
for applications where you might have oscillating power
levels; now you're not giving up a lot of efficiency if
you need to change how much power you need. "
The Karno holds an advantage in this regard compared
to fuel cells as well, according to Healy.
" Fuel cells can have a very high peak efficiency, actually
very comparable to our peak efficiency, but then as
you get into high power levels, it falls off a cliff, " Healy
said. " What fuel-cell providers are saying is, 'Hey, you're
going to want to operate this around 60-percent power,
so size the amount of fuel cells you need so that you're
only running them at 60-percent power.' The problem
with that is that becomes very costly. We're quoting a
200-kilowatt generator and we're telling customers,
'You can really run this thing at 200 kilowatts.' "
February 2024 17
BOTH IMAGES: HYLIION

Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2024

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