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FUEL EFFICENCY AND EMISSION S REDUCTION SYSTEM FOR THE MARITIME AND ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRIES

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AQUASONIC DIESEL (FUEL EFFICENCY AND EMISSION S REDUCTION SYSTEM FOR THE MARITIME AND ROADTRANSPORT INDUSTRIES)

Reporting period: 2019-05-01 to 2020-04-30

The project AQUASONIC - DIESEL belonging to Horizon2020 is the direct response of AQUASONIC S.L. and OMPI (both partner companies) to significantly reduce fuel consumption and drastically cut pollutant emission, mainly in the maritime and road transport industries. Aquasonic - diesel project will enable us to firstly, further consolidation in the European marine industry market and, secondly, open the markets of road transport in Europe and Latin America. The competitiveness of the European waterborne and road transport industries requires a dramatic effort in reducing operational costs which are more than 50% linked to fuel consumption. We have identified an immense 30.400 m€ potential market for Aquasonic-diesel as a device that can be installed as a retrofit into existing ships, truck and buses or any engine in the industry using hydrocarbons, by improving the combustibility of the used fuel without the need of any chemical additives, allowing for a significant CO2 emissions reduction.

This easy-to-install, maintenance free, robust and environmentally friendly device is based on our patented electric pulsed power technology in which a physical process is performed on the fuel right before entering the engine. A pulsed electromagnetic field performs a change on the molecules of the fuel, maximizing the fuel burning efficiency and allowing to a fuel consumption reduction up to 10%. The overall product provides advantages to the actual growing demand in the transport industries for fuel consumption reduction and cutting GHG emissions imposed by stringent regulations such as EU Euro VI and the International Maritime Organization.
During the first period the main effort was dedicated to the innovation and implementation of a new Aquasonic Diesel prototype. The upgrade and optimization of the prototype was fully realized after a period in which the whole team (engineers, technicians, etc.) made a lot of effort in a process of trial and error in which, in the end, the expected results were successfully achieved. The most relevant update we identify compared to the previous version of Aquasonic-Diesel was moving from analog to digital technology. The work carried out was developed in a laboratory test bench, the test and error processes were performed as often as necessary in different environments to analyze potential errors and solve them until the expected results were obtained.

The new digital technology offers the opportunity to control the active parameters of the system such as: coils, temperature, voltage. It also allows you to monitor the frequency and amplitude of the pulse. The implementation of the digital system favors the reduction of the electrical consumption of the equipment. The new Aquasonic-Diesel version includes a temperature sensor that sends information to the PCB and allows you to control the overall temperature of the system to avoid possible overheating on the coil and consequent damage to the equipment.

The optimization of the prototype was successfully achieved and all the measurements showed positive results, in accordance with the performance forecasts and expected results.

In the second period a collaboration with the University has been activated to carry out several tests to confirm our in-house results. Their tests have given us some interesting indications for the further improvement of the product.
In the meantime, assembly benches of the product range have been built for testing for the measurement of the degree of abatement of exhaust gases and fuel consumption, connected to a diesel engine of previous generations and therefore characterized by a rather limited efficiency.

Finally we have installed the most promising prototypes on boats and trucks to carry out some actual tests in the field to cover maritime and automotive markets. During the tests in the trucks, It was a necessary to develop a system for measuring consumption directly on the engine. A specific digital meter has therefore been designed and manufactured that allows this service. This meter can be further improved and can also be used in different contexts in the future, with the aim of a precise measurement of the work activities of diesel engines.

In addition some dissemination actions were done before the COVID health emergency happened: The International Fair of Navalia at Vigo (Spain), EIMA international at Bologna (italy), Automechanika in Frankfurt (Germany), 62nd International technical Fair in Belgrade (Serbia) and Ecomondo exhibition in Rimini (Italy). and some other meetings with potential clients in Brazil and Chile. On top, a patent application to protect the technology has been started.
Aquasonic-diesel technology is a different approach to improving fuel efficiency actual systems. Our product eliminates all the drawbacks of Fuel Water Emulsion and Chemical Additives technologies. Aquasonic-diesel is:

1) Low-priced (1.000-20.000 €).

2) Easy and inexpensive to implement (5% of product sales price).

3) Maintenance free (estimated lifetime 15 years – in line with Aquasonic-water).

4) Environmentally friendly (unlike chemical additives).

Aquasonic-diesel treats the fuel right before its combustion using the electromagnetic pulsed power technology to achieve the optimal molecular cracking, which results in lower fuel consumption and lower pollutant emissions. This technology is meant to have a dramatic impact in all the existing fuel consuming industries worldwide. However, our effort will be centered into two markets with a huge economic potential Market 1: the maritime industry and Market 2: the road transport industry.

This innovation achieves very significant savings for a very reasonable investment in both markets. The total fuel savings for a medium size commercial ship in a year would rise up to 730.000 €, being the pay off time only 1.5 day journey. On the other hand, savings for the road transport industry are significant too. The total fuel savings in a year would rise up to 10.184 €/year, being the best pay off time only 33 days.

Main strength of our project is the innovative character of our patented solution bringing an enormous potential added value to our customers in terms of fuel savings and emissions reduction. Main strength of the consortium is the good positioning of the partners in the maritime and the road transport sectors due to our previous experience and reputation of Aquasonic SL with Aquasonic-water (maritime industry) and of OMPI as supplier to the road vehicle OEM industry.

From the point of view of Ompi, we have carried out a series of collateral activities at the same time, pending the final batch of the final instruments from the partner Aquasonic. We have invested in the design, prototyping and testing of special meters for the correct measurement of engine consumption, even remotely, which today are giving us excellent results and we are convinced that it can be an element of strong innovation on the market in the near future, especially for the purpose of control, monitoring and against any illegal shoplifting activities on the real fuel consumption of engines.

We estimate that the project will afford the creation of 5 new employees in the consortium partners during the project execution. To reinforce our technical teams, three new engineers will be hired. On the commercial side, add new commercial team members are considered necessary.
AQUASONIC-Diesel emitting framework (Adapted)
Prototype under test
Aquasonic Diesel roll up
Prototypes installed on assembling and test benches
AQUASONIC-Diesel prototype installation