Camcon Automotive digital engine technology could cut diesel truck fuel costs

(July 22, 2020) CAMBRIDGE, England — Heavy duty diesel truck fleets could save millions of dollars in fuel costs and commercial vehicle OEMs could meet increasingly stringent emissions regulations, by adopting digital engine technology from Camcon Automotive.

Featuring the company’s Intelligent Valve Technology (iVT) at its heart — which replaces the camshaft with electric actuators for full, precise control over the engine’s breathing— combined with innovative software, Camcon Automotive’s cost-effective concept has the potential to make a step change in powertrain development programs, dramatically reducing fuel consumption and improving control over harmful emissions, without any need for OEMs to invest in electrification.


Neil Butler, technical consultant, Camcon Automotive, explained: “All key combustion process parameters have been under digital control for some time now. But breathing has been stuck under the control of increasingly complex but essentially mechanical variable valve train systems. iVT is as big a leap forward as the change from carburetors to electronically controlled fuel injection.”   

IVT gives infinite control over the valves, bringing enormous benefits for Heavy Duty Diesel commercial trucks, from cold start emissions performance to exhaust gas recirculation to 
on-demand cylinder deactivation and management of harmful pollutants, like NOx, which is a major contributor to poor air quality.


To this system, Camcon Automotive’s vision is to incorporate a suite of software that allows iVT to be calibrated through machine learning, combining hardware and software in one package, resulting in the most optimized ICE yet: the digital engine.

With heavy duty diesel truck makers under the same kinds of regulatory pressures that passenger vehicles have been, the focus for the industry is less in terms of CO2 and more on other harmful emissions, such as NOx and particulate matter, both of which impact on air quality. RDE compliance is a huge challenge and many trucks now feature so much after-treatment technology that the equipment can cost more than the actual engine itself.

iVT can be used to reduce the size, weight and cost of the after-treatment equipment fitted to a Heavy Duty Diesel engine very significantly and also to better control the exhaust after-treatment temperature.

Catalysts can be maintained at their optimum operating temperature over a greater proportion of the drive cycle and, while iVT cannot eliminate after-treatment equipment entirely, it can reduce the size and cost and weight. For instance, thanks to the system’s greater optimization of emissions control, a truck would not need to use as much AdBlue.

But the most significant area is how iVT can also significantly reduce fuel consumption. Camcon Automotive believes it can improve the efficiency of the average Heavy Duty Diesel truck by five percent. For just one truck that would save nearly $3,000 a year in diesel; so for an average fleet of six HGVs, an operator could save $19,000. For a large fleet of 1,000 vehicles, annual fuel costs could be slashed by more than $3 million.

“Extrapolated across the entire UK haulage fleet, iVT could save the industry close to half a billion pounds in diesel every year. With more than three million heavy duty diesel trucks sold worldwide and each vehicle having a lifetime of over 10 years it is very easy to see just how much of a massive effect our system could have," said  Butler.
 
“Another factor to consider is that heavy duty trucks require long ranges as well as rapid unloading and loading – so electrification is a lot further away than it is in the passenger car industry. We believe iVT can reduce running costs, dramatically improve emissions and require no change to the current refueling infrastructure.”