10 | UK Transport Awards 2023 Feb23027 Leading Innovators in Railway Vehicle Powertrains 2023 When the rail industry first opened its door, coal was the order of the day. With the majority of railways based around mines, this meant that operators almost didn’t have to pay for fuel at all. Now, generations after Stephenson’s Rocket first puffed boldly between Liverpool and Manchester, the topic of fuel has once again risen to the forefront. Fossil fuels are, quite literally, a dying breed. There is increased pressure to change how vehicles are powered. Although trains are no longer fuelled by coal, the diesel and petrol fuels which have become the mainstay of what railways use are on the way out. No one understands the challenges of moving forward to alternative sources better than Shimon Shapiro. His firm, SBL-Rail, has been at the forefront of an engineering revolution. “Our work shows how fossil fuels can be displaced by alternative lower carbon and net zero carbon renewable fuels,” he tells us. “Through CAD based packaging studies of new powertrains and their fuel tanks within a railway vehicle model and alongside powertrain duty cycle modelling and route simulations we can show a back to back comparison with the currently used and original powertrains.” In short, what SBL-Rail offers is a development that allows older locomotives to use new sources of fuel. “Our clients are rolling stock owners and operators worldwide,” Shimon tells us. “Our Class 37 and Class 66 dual fuel evolution concepts are based on UK locomotive designs and for UK based clients but we have also completed equivalent work for clients in the EU and Asia (but not yet published in the public domain).” The secret of the team’s success is the two methods which are often adopted by the team. On the one hand, there is the evolution of the original Diesel engines to dual fuel, which allows two fuels to be used simultaneously, or through applying the dual fuel combustion approach to new engine designs for either repower of existing rolling stock or application to new build rolling stock. The UK transport industry has welcomed the ideas of SBL-Rail with open arms, primarily because they are under pressure to transition away from the use of fossil fuels and to improve air quality. Shimon was happy to explain. “Operators and vehicle manufacturers (OEMs) are under pressure from legislation to move to battery electric or fuel cell powertrains as part of addressing and moving from using fossil fuels. In response OEMs are beginning to offer electric and fuel cell powertrains and operators are beginning to adopt them too.” For large fleets, however, transitioning an existing internal combustion engine asset (and the plant it is contained in) is a lower cost option than displacing whole vehicles with new which are battery electric or fuel cell The 21st Century has already seen tremendous change in how we live and work. The rail industry is no exception to this, with the target of net zero one which everyone is trying to reach. The team at SBL-Rail focuses on how alternative lower carbon fuels and net zero carbon emission renewable fuels can be successfully adopted for self powered railway vehicles or rolling stock. We caught up with Shimon Shapiro to take a closer look at the firm, following success in the UK Transport Awards. “ Our Class 37 and Class 66 dual fuel evolution concepts are based on UK locomotive designs and for UK based clients but we have also completed equivalent work for clients in the EU and Asia (but not yet published in the public domain). ”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUyMDQwMA==