Eaton Corporation will develop
an affordable home refueling station for natural gas vehicles,
utilizing existing natural gas sources in the home and innovative
compressor technology. The effort is funded in part by a $3.4-million
grant from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency –
Energy (ARPA-E) MOVE project.
The refueling system will use liquid to act as a piston to compress natural gas. (E.g., earlier post.)
Innovative heat exchanger technology will improve efficiency and cut
cost dramatically. Eaton will collaborate with the University of
Minnesota on thermodynamic analysis and modeling to enable the efficient
transfer of heat in the compression process.
The goal is to develop a production prototype for refueling stations
that will retail for about one-tenth of the cost of currently available
systems. The development project will be led by Eaton’s Innovation Center teams
in Southfield, Mich., and Milwaukee and the Advanced Hydraulics group in
Eden Prairie, Minn. Teams will draw on Eaton’s expertise in hydraulic
component and systems design and experience gained through development
and installation of thousands of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations
in public and residential spaces across the country.
Current natural gas refueling systems cost between $5,000 and $10,000.
Eaton expects that its prototype will be available before the end of
2015 with a target production price of $500. In the hydraulics industry, Eaton is a leader in the design, manufacture
and marketing of a comprehensive line of reliable, high-efficiency
hydraulic systems and components for use in mobile and stationary
applications, including markets such as agriculture, alternative energy,
construction, mining, oil and gas, transportation and more.
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