Clean start

Natural gas engine with a high-energy ignition system is claimed to produce the same amount of power as a diesel engine — with fewer emissions — and it could help electricity and heat power generation plants comply with environmental regulations.

The engine from

, a Germany supplier of large-scale diesel engines, was first unveiled in 2006. The engine has since undergone a test trial with a Russian energy supplier and it recently received a big commercial order from Argentinean energy firm PAMPA.

Traditional gas engines use spark plugs, but this engine does not. Instead, it has a simple ignition system with high-pressure gas injection.

MAN calls the concept Performance Gas Injection (PGI), which it says generates ignition power up to 100,000 times greater than the most powerful spark plug.

The PGI principle allows natural gas to be converted with high degrees of efficiency into electrical and thermal energy with only minimal emissions.

One of the developers, MAN's Wolfram Lausch, said the components involved have a much longer service life. 'The system therefore forms the basis for an engine that combines the high-performance density and efficiency of a diesel engine with the advantages of a low-emissions gas model,' he said.