On the afternoon of November 20th, Weichai released the world’s first commercial diesel engine with a thermal efficiency of 52.28% and the world’s first commercial natural gas engine with a thermal efficiency of 54.16% in Weifang. It was proved by the novelty search of the Southwest Research Institute in the United States that Weichai diesel engine and natural gas engine The bulk thermal efficiency exceeds 52% and 54% for the first time in the world.
Li Xiaohong, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Zhong Zhihua, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Deng Xiuxin, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Ling Wen, Vice Governor of Shandong Province and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, participated in the new product release event. At the release event, Li Xiaohong and Ling Wen made congratulatory speeches respectively. Dean Li Xiaohong even used the key words “exhilaration” and “proud” to evaluate these two achievements.
“Compared with the industry average, a diesel engine with a thermal efficiency of 52% can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 12%, and a natural gas engine with a thermal efficiency of 54% can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 25%,” said Tan Xuguang, director of the State Key Laboratory of Internal Combustion Engine Reliability and chairman of Weichai Power. If the two engines are fully commercialized, they can reduce my country’s carbon emissions by 90 million tons per year, which will greatly promote my country’s energy conservation and emission reduction.
A reporter from the Economic Herald noticed that Weichai broke the global diesel engine thermal efficiency record three times in three years, and made the thermal efficiency of natural gas engines surpass diesel engines for the first time. Behind this is the company’s unremitting pursuit and continuous investment in scientific and technological research and development.
01
Three years and three steps
“The diesel engine with a body thermal efficiency of 52.28% marks a new major breakthrough made by Weichai’s scientific and technological workers in the technological ‘no man’s land’.” Tan Xuguang said at the press conference that the level of thermal efficiency is regarded as the comprehensive strength of a country’s diesel engine technology The logo is the common pursuit of the global diesel engine industry for 125 years.
The Economic Herald reporter learned that the average thermal efficiency of existing mainstream products in the market is about 46%, while Weichai has created a new 52.28% on the basis of the thermal efficiency of diesel engines reaching 50.23% in 2020 and 51.09% in January this year. Records, the realization of three major leaps in three years, greatly enhanced my country’s voice in the global internal combustion engine industry.
According to reports, the thermal efficiency of the engine body refers to the ratio of converting the energy of diesel combustion into the effective output work of the engine without relying on the waste heat recovery device. The higher the thermal efficiency of the body, the better the economy of the engine.
“For example, if the tractor runs 200,000 to 300,000 kilometers a year, the fuel cost alone will be close to 300,000 yuan. If the thermal efficiency is improved, the fuel consumption will be reduced, which may save 50,000 to 60,000 yuan in fuel costs.” Weichai Power Engine Dr. Dou Zhancheng, vice president of the research institute, told the reporter of Economic Herald that compared with the existing mainstream products in the market, the commercial application of 52.28% body thermal efficiency technology can reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by 12% respectively, which can save my country’s energy consumption every year. Save 19 million tons of fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60 million tons.
The energy revolution has also led to the development of multiple power sources. Natural gas engines, with their inherent low-carbon properties, play an important role in reducing emissions and carbon emissions of internal combustion engines. The Economic Herald reporter learned that the current global average thermal efficiency of natural gas engines is about 42%, and the highest in foreign countries is 47.6% (Volvo, Sweden). The key common technologies of high thermal efficiency of diesel engines such as low friction and low friction are applied to natural gas engines. The dual-fuel fusion injection multi-point lean combustion technology is pioneered, the dual-fuel fusion injection combustion system is invented, and the thermal efficiency of the natural gas engine body is successfully increased to 54.16%.
“This is a revolutionary subversion to the internal combustion engine industry. The thermal efficiency of natural gas engines surpasses that of diesel engines for the first time, becoming the thermal machinery with the highest thermal efficiency.” Tan Xuguang said, this is another important milestone for Weichai to move towards world-class technology.
According to calculations, compared with ordinary natural gas engines, natural gas engines with a thermal efficiency of 54.16% can save fuel costs by more than 20%, reduce carbon emissions by 25%, and reduce carbon emissions by 30 million tons per year for the entire industry.
02
Continuous large-scale R&D investment is effective
The achievements are exciting, but what makes Weichai, a state-owned enterprise located in a third-tier city in China, always be at the forefront of the industry?
“This kind of transcendence is too difficult, and no one has done it before. We plunged into it in 2008 and worked for more than ten years. Finally, we broke through four key technologies such as fusion injection and multi-point lean combustion, and applied for more than 100 patents. When talking about the improvement of the thermal efficiency of natural gas engines, Dr. Jia Demin, assistant to the president of the Weichai Power Future Technology Research Institute, told the Economic Herald reporter that the team has tried many new research methods and developed many simulation models, all of which require real money. .
“Every small breakthrough was made by our R&D team in two and a half days.” Dou Zhancheng said when talking about the breakthrough in the thermal efficiency of diesel engines for three consecutive years, Weichai continued to invest resources in the R&D team. Advanced doctors and post-doctors continue to join, forming a perfect research and development system. During this period, only 162 patents were declared and 124 patents were authorized.
As Dou Zhancheng and Jia Demin said, the continuous introduction of scientific and technological personnel and investment in R&D expenses are Weichai’s confidence.
A reporter from the Economic Herald learned that Tan Xuguang has always regarded the core technology as a “spirit of the sea”, and has never cared about money in R&D investment. In the past 10 years, Weichai’s R&D expenses for engine technology alone have exceeded 30 billion yuan. Inspired by the “high pressure-high contribution-high salary” ecology, Weichai R&D personnel “receive both fame and fortune” has become the norm.
R&D expenditure is more intuitively reflected in the listed company Weichai Power. Wind data statistics show that from 2017 to 2021, Weichai Power’s “total R&D expenditure” was 5.647 billion yuan, 6.494 billion yuan, 7.347 billion yuan, 8.294 billion yuan, and 8.569 billion yuan, showing a trend of year-by-year growth. A total of more than 36 billion yuan.
Weichai also has a tradition of rewarding R&D personnel. For example, on April 26 this year, Weichai Group held the 2021 Science and Technology Incentive Commendation Conference. Three doctors, Li Qin, Zeng Pin, and Du Hongliu, won the special award for high-end talents, with a bonus of 2 million yuan each; Another group of scientific and technological innovation teams and individuals won awards, with a total award of 64.41 million yuan. Previously, in 2019, Weichai also provided 100 million yuan to reward scientific and technological innovation workers.
On October 30 this year, Weichai’s Science and Technology Research Institute, which took 10 years of planning and construction and invested more than 11 billion yuan, was officially opened, which further demonstrated Tan Xuguang’s ambition to pursue technological innovation. It is reported that the system integrates “eight institutes and one center” such as engine, hydraulic transmission, new energy, electronic control and software, smart agriculture, craftsmen, future technology and product testing center, and will create a global innovation highland for the power industry. Gather the top talent resources.
In Tan Xuguang’s plan, in the future, on the new platform of the General Institute of Science and Technology, Weichai’s domestic scientific and technological personnel will increase from the current 10,000 to more than 20,000, and overseas scientific and technological personnel will increase from the current 3,000 to 5,000 , The doctoral team will grow from the current 500 to 1,000 people, and truly build a strong R&D team in the global industry.
Post time: Apr-24-2023
