Perusahaan manufaktur mesin disel Iran, DESA, tengah mendesain mesin berbahan bakar ganda: gas dan solar. Mesin berkonfigurasi V12 ini bakal dipacu dengan campuran bahan bakar solar dan gas dengan rasio 80% gas dan 20% solar. Hasilnya, menurut Direktur DESA, Mohammad Sabzavi, bakal jauh lebih ramah lingkungan ketimbang mesin berbahan murni solar. Berita selengkapnya di bawah ini.

Iranian diesel engine manufacturing company, DESA, is designing an advanced dual-fuel engine that runs on a blend of natural gas (NG) and diesel fuel.

DESA’s Managing Director, Mohammad Sabzavi, speaking to journalists on Monday said that his company is designing a V-12 engine that will run on the NG/diesel blend, resulting in far less pollution, reported IRNA.

He described the ratio of the mixture as 20 percent diesel and 80 percent NG.

DESA is based in the city of Amol in the northern province of Mazandaran.

It is wholly owned by the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO) and was set up four years ago as a start-up company to design, develop and manufacture medium diesel engines for automotive, industrial and power generation applications.

It unveiled its first pure diesel engine – Model D87 – on July 24. However, the 800 kW (1,072 hp) dual-fuel version will have great environmental advantages.

The V-12 dual-fuel engine is a derivation of the D87 family, which is made up of four engines ranging from 500 kW (671 hp) to 1,250 kW (1,676 hp).

Sabzavi described the investment for the D87 family as about $22 million.
There are plans to expand the range to 16 and 20 cylinders, with outputs of up to 2,000 kW (2,682 hp).

The state railways company has already ordered 35 of these engines for use in locomotives, with deliveries due to begin in October 2010.

While it is relatively simple to have dual-fuel NG-gasoline engines that can run on either gasoline or NG, because of the different combustion temperatures of diesel and NG, it is very difficult to make a similar dual-fuel engine that can run on either diesel or NG.

NG is readily and cheaply available in Iran, and it has the lowest pollution of any fossil fuel.

Therefore, to benefit for these properties, designers have opted to inject a blend of diesel and NG into the engine.

Because of the relatively large volumes necessary to store compressed natural gas (CNG), locomotives are an ideal application for such large and thirsty engines.

They can also be used in stationery applications for generating power and to pump water out of deep wells at minimal cost and environmental damage.