Sinara Transport Machines (STM) (OKPO code: 82085471) is developing a line of engines for mainline locomotives and shunters that run on natural gas fuel and various biogases, the engineering director of STM's diesel engines division, Nikita Grigoryev said at the INNOPROM forum exhibition.
"We have set ourselves the ambitious objective of building an engine not only for gas fields, for example, but a universal one on which it is possible to use both gas and autonomous transport. [...] This is a new project, we only started it this year, [...] we're starting to produce natural gas engines," Grigoryev said.
The company is now doing research on this project in order to "present a product to the world" in 2027, he said.
STM government relations director Mikhail Boiko said earlier that the company plans to develop a line of gas-fueled locomotives with various capacity. The first locomotive that runs on gas, the TEMG1 shunter is now in pilot operation.
The second in the line will be the TEMG7 shunter with up to 2,000 hp, which is being designed on the platform of an eight-axle diesel locomotive but will run on natural gas. This locomotive is scheduled to go into commercial operation in 2026.
The final vehicle in the line will be the 2TE35AG LNG locomotive with up to 7,000 hp with a tank tender. The first locomotives with diesel engines are scheduled to be launched this year and they will subsequently be converted to gas fuel.
STM is the locomotive manufacturing and engineering division of Sinara Group. The company also has plants that manufacture diesel engines and line maintenance vehicles and service divisions in Sverdlovsk and Kaluga regions.
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