Gas Engine 2020+

Within the BMWi joint research and development program "Gas Engine 2020+", which is lead by MTU Friedrichshafen, the fundamentals for new modern power plants will be developed, which can work as flexible standby provider of electricity, when wind and solar electricity production are lower due to cloudy and windless days. Large internal combustion engine power plants, being operated with natural gas, have big econological and economical potential for such applications, as the invest and maintenance costs are low, which is especially of importance for low usage hours per year. Additionally, such power plants can be build in flexible blocks. One actual example is the "Gas engine power and heat plant" Kiel with 20 gas engines with overall  utilisation factor of up to 90 percent. Such engines are very flexible and can start within minutes in response to the variable need for electricity production. Additionally the combustion with gas allows very low emissions. In future, also regeneratively produced biogas or sustainably produced synthetic eFuels can be applied, so that such plants are fitting into future low greenhouse gas scenarios.
Within the actual joint project, several technological steps are done from the different partners, to find the basic technologies for the next generation of gas engines and to bring them to development. At ITV Hannover the focus is set to the reduction of friction within the engine. For that, the floating liner engine test rig of the institute is used to find new coating technology and to test them with detailed friction measurements under real engine conditions with selected lubricants.