Cummins Westport Inc. announced last week that the company has started developmental work on the ISB6.7 G, a mid-range natural gas engine (capacity 6.7 liter) which is targeted toward on-highway vehicles using low cost, clean natural gas.
The engine is based on the Cummins ISB6.7 diesel engine and will be using the company’s spark-ignited, stoichiometric cooled exhaust gas recirculation (SEGR) technology. A maintenance-free three-way catalyst will provide exhaust after-treatment, and the engine will run on compressed natural gas (CNG). Gas may also be stored on the vehicle as LNG.
The engine should be in production by 2015 and will meet EPA and California Air Resources Board regulations by then.
From the Sacramento Bee:
“The addition of the ISB6.7 G will round out our family of high performance natural gas engines,” said Jim Arthurs, President of Cummins Westport. “It joins the 8.9-liter ISL G, with over 16,000 engines in service, and the 11.9-litre ISX12 G, which will start production in 2013, to give our customers a broad range of natural gas engines for on-highway applications.”
Cummins Westport, a joint venture between Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) and Westport Innovations (NASDAQ: WPRT), manufactures engines that are used in Freightliner’s truck fleet. Freightliner Trucks is a division of Daimler Trucks North America. Cummins Westport has produced over 13,000 of its 8.9 liter natural gas engines between 2007 and now, and it hopes to release a 12-liter model in 2013 to take advantage of the rising demand.
