Auxiliary Heater for Natural Gas Trucks

Abstract: As alternative fuels are becoming more common, technologies need to adjust to them. Natural gas is one of the alternative fuels that has grown during the latest years in the transport sector. Natural gas consists of around 97 % methane and is the cleanest fossil fuel. The use of natural gas can make it easier to transition to biogas as it has equivalent properties. Today Scania CV AB's trucks fuelled by natural gas are using auxiliary cabin heaters driven by diesel. This means that the natural gas trucks have two fuels on-board the truck. The goal of this project is to find a concept to eliminate the diesel fuel and replace it with an auxiliary cabin heater driven by another energy source. It will improve the heating solution and make it superior from an environmental perspective. The result of the project lead to a short-term solution with an auxiliary heater fuelled by natural gas. A long-term solution is to have a cooperation with a manufacturer to develop a better natural gas auxiliary heater that fulfils more of the requirements in the technical specification. An experiment plan is devised to test parameters out of reach of the project.