Mercedes-Benz approves alternative fuels for its truck engines

Automaker Mercedes-Benz’ Indian subsidiary BharatBenz has given the green light to using alternative fuels in its fleet of trucks without major changes to their engine technology.

The German car giant has approved the fuels under the prEN 15940 paraffinic diesel standard and made them applicable immediately, according to the TrucksDekho website.

Two of the company’s latest generation truck engines, namely the OM 470 with 10.7l displacement and OM 471 with 12.8l displacement, will be powered by these fuels.

The alternative fuel options include hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), biomass to liquid (BTL), coal to liquid (CTL), and gas to liquid (GTL) fuels.

These fuels have gone through a series of tests and been cleared for commercial use, and the engines have been designed to run on each of them as standard.

The characteristics of these alternative fuels and diesel are similar and as such the engines’ injection process, fuel lines, and engine seals can remain unaltered.

According to Mercedes-Benz, the motors achieved the same performance efficiency while running on alternative fuels as on petroleum diesel, and the torque data too remained unaffected.

The performance tests were carried out according to the prEN 15940 standard guidelines.

The engines were also found to not require filter or oil changes as frequently while using the alternative fuels.