On January 8, Weichai Power Co.Ltd(000338) officially released the world’s first diesel engine with body thermal efficiency of 51.09%, which reached a new power peak after breaking the record of 50% body thermal efficiency on September 16, 2020.
“If the thermal efficiency of the body exceeded 50% last time, it is compared to that of the adult 100 meter race running into 10 seconds. This time, the record breaking difficulty is like that of the 100 meter race from 10 seconds to 9 seconds. Although the improvement from 50.23% to 51.09% is less than 1%, the actual difficulty is very great.” Tong Dehui, a Weichai scientist and deputy general manager of Weichai group, said in an interview with Securities Daily.
What does this less than 1% increase in thermal efficiency mean? Tan Xuguang, Secretary of the Party committee and chairman of Shandong heavy industry group, Weichai Power Co.Ltd(000338) chairman and director of the academic committee of the national fuel cell technology innovation center, listed a series of figures most intuitively: compared with the existing mainstream products in the market (average 46% thermal efficiency diesel engine), 51% thermal efficiency diesel engine can reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emission by 10% respectively, and China can save 16 million tons of fuel every year Reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 million tons and create economic benefits of about 140 billion yuan. “If this top technology is popularized and applied in the whole industry, it will bring huge economic and social benefits.” Tan Xuguang said.
traditional power has been attacking
In the context of the national “double carbon” goal, the emerging new energy has indeed carried the banner of facing the future, but the traditional power has also been actively meeting the challenges of scientific and technological revolution and industrial reform in anxiety.
“The level of thermal efficiency is the symbol of a country’s comprehensive strength of diesel engine technology. Improving thermal efficiency is also the common pursuit of the global industry since the birth of diesel engine 125 years ago.” On January 8, Tan Xuguang told the media including securities daily. Weichai Power Co.Ltd(000338) after releasing the world’s first commercial diesel engine with thermal efficiency of 50.23% on September 16, 2020 and setting a new benchmark for global diesel engine thermal efficiency, Weichai scientific research team challenged the new target of 51% and achieved a number of original technological breakthroughs. From 50% to 51%, it took only 480 days, “Weichai has once again set a new global record, further improving China’s voice in the global internal combustion engine industry.” Tan Xuguang said.
Tong Dehui introduced to the reporter of Securities Daily that the process is actually extremely difficult, because thermal efficiency is the embodiment of the comprehensive technical ability of diesel engine enterprises. It is not enough to only do well in combustion, but also subject to the constraints of reliability and emission. In particular, thermal efficiency and exhaust emission are a pair of “contradictions”. The higher the former, the more difficult it is for the latter to meet the standard. In order to meet the most stringent national VI B emission requirements, Weichai’s R & D personnel optimized more than 200 versions of the scheme in less than a month, and finally made a breakthrough on the basis of 50% thermal efficiency proprietary technology.
Tong Dehui told the Securities Daily that Weichai Power Co.Ltd(000338) more than 200 R & D personnel participated in the direct research on the improvement of thermal efficiency, “but in fact, more than 5000 R & D personnel of the company have contributed to this.”
provide technical preparation for “national seven”
In the interview, many insiders said that from the statistical data of the development of thermal efficiency of diesel engines in the world, with the increasingly stringent emission regulations, the improvement of thermal efficiency has encountered a great bottleneck. The difficulty and slow progress of thermal efficiency improvement are recognized as a technical problem in the world.
“We have entered the \’no man’s land\’.” Turning to the next breakthrough, Tong Dehui said that Weichai, which is in the leading state, has no successful cases to learn from. A large number of basic research needs to be done by itself. The current innovation has high requirements for R & D resources and cost guarantee. It is understood that Weichai Power Co.Ltd(000338) spends about 5 billion yuan on R & D in the engine field every year.
Although the difficulty has further increased, in the view of relevant industry insiders in the automotive industry chain, the thermal efficiency of diesel engine body has exceeded 51% for the first time in the world, which is not only another major revolution of traditional power, but also provides technical preparation for the implementation of “national seven” emission standards.
Tan Xuguang said that at present, green and low-carbon development has become a global consensus, especially in the field of transportation, which is an important battlefield to realize the “double carbon” strategy. In this process, the internal combustion engine industry plays an important role. As a standard to measure the fuel utilization efficiency of internal combustion engine, the higher the thermal efficiency, the less the fuel consumption, and the more significant the effect of energy conservation and emission reduction. “This time, the thermal efficiency of diesel engine body has achieved a technical breakthrough of 51.09%, which will fully realize Weichai Power Co.Ltd(000338) a full range of diesel engines and lead the world; it is of great strategic significance to promote energy conservation, emission reduction and green development of China’s traditional internal combustion engine industry; it plays an important technical leading role in the global internal combustion engine industry.” Tan Xuguang said.
Although the world record of thermal efficiency has been refreshed again, Weichai has not stopped its progress. At present, it is working towards the goal of 52% thermal efficiency of diesel engine body. According to the plan, Weichai people will strive to achieve the goal that the thermal efficiency of diesel engine body will exceed 55% in the future.
(source: Securities Daily)
