EcoTrans Technologies has introduced an auxiliary power unit (APU) purpose-built for the rail transportation industry. The K9 APU system consists of an auxiliary diesel engine generator set and engine shutdown timer. Together, these two components can provide a significant reduction in the idle time of locomotive engines.
EcoTrans Technologies was formed as a joint venture between CSX Transportation and International Road & Rail Inc. for the purpose of marketing the K9 APU.
"Roughly 40 to 50 percent of the time that a locomotive is alive, it is idling," said Larry Biess, mechanical systems engineer for CSX Transportation. "We estimate that 15,000 to 16,000 gal. of fuel per year is burned while the locomotive is idling. The goal with this project was to come up with a way to take idle out of the duty cycle to save fuel and reduce emissions.
"We had looked at what the industry had to offer and didn't find anything that offered excess electrical capacity to do the kinds of things we wanted to do. We realized that if we put a 17 kW gen-set on a locomotive, we can keep the water warm, the batteries charged, the oil loose and improve operator comfort by having the cab cool in the summer and warm in the winter The K9 APU system is made up of a turbocharged Kubota V2003-T-B diesel engine rated 36 hp at 1800 rpm. The engine is directly coupled to a single-phase Mecc Alte SpA generator rated 16 kVa, 240 V at 60 Hz.
"The beautiful thing about this engine," said Bless," is that for each kW of electrical work, this unit sheds an additional kW of waste heat through the jacket water heater. It doesn't have a radiator. We have a water pump that recirculates locomotive water. The locomotive's water system and the Kubota's water system interface through the heat exchanger. It's a marine grade stainless steel water heater. The Kubota's cooling water system is ethylene glycol treated 50/50 standard automotive mix. One of the primary reasons we could never shut down is because we don't carry antifreeze on a locomotive.
"The locomotive cooling water is heated through the Kubota heat exchanger and through a heater tank which is on top of the unit that has three, 3 kW emersion heaters," Bless added. "In the center of that water tank there is also an oil heater which gives 1 kW of electrical heat to the lube oil, which is running through it. There is also some absorption of heat from the cooling water side through the 9 kW."
The K9 APU system sits atop a 20 gal. dry sump, which allows oil change intervals of two years. "Whenever this engine runs, it is pumping about a pint an hour of fresh oil into the crankcase and the excess flows back into a tank on the gen-set," Biess said. "Whenever K9 APU system runs, it's got a belt driven locomotive cooling water pump that comes on. It sits there as a parasitic load. We also have a hydraulic oil pump that circulates the locomotives lube oil.
"Whenever the K9 APU system runs, it also sends 240 V to a 74 Vd.c. battery charger keeping a charge on he locomotive batteries."
The K9 APU is a self-controlled system, Biess said. "We designed the system so that it can either be controlled by a computer or a thermostat or other simple analog instruments," he noted. "We can set it up so that it'll start on just about any parameter on a locomotive that an operator would concern themselves with -- air pressure, water temperature, ambient temperature. We can program it to start once a day to make sure we are keeping the 12 V system topped off."
While the K9 APU system is tied into the main locomotive system, if the K9 system fails, it will not affect locomotive performance. The K9 APU system is linked with the locomotive's emergency shutdown system so that if the locomotive is shutdown due to an emergency, all rotating equipment on the locomotive stops, including the K9 APU system
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