This Week in Engineering Engineering.com

Venerable diesel engine builder Cummins has introduced a fuel agnostic heavy truck engine that uses an interesting modular design to create a single internal combustion powerplant capable of operating on diesel fuel, biodiesel, and gaseous fuels such as hydrogen, biogas or natural gas.
Nonetheless, the fuel infrastructure will be dominated by kerosene type liquid fuels for the foreseeable future.
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Reducing the carbon footprint of the chemical industry requires a two-pronged strategy: reduction of fossil fuel use as an energy input, and capture and reuse of carbon dioxide generated by chemical processes themselves.
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Want to watch this podcast as a video? This Week in Engineering is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as End of the Line, Designing the Future, Manufacturing the Future, and the Engineering Roundtable.

Mojave, California-based Stratolaunch has announced the successful test of an air-launched, hypersonic uncrewed test vehicle, the Talon TA-1.
As a private company, Stratolaunch can be contracted to gather specific data in hypersonic flight in support of customer-specific aircraft and missile programs.
This proprietary data can form an important and valuable source of intellectual property for air framers and give them a competitive advantage in what will almost certainly be a crowded and lucrative hypersonic market space.
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Want to watch this podcast as a video? This Week in Engineering is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as End of the Line, Designing the Future, Manufacturing the Future, and the Engineering Roundtable.

Ocean shipping under sail may be making a comeback. Cargill, a very large global producer of bulk agricultural commodities, has partnered with BAR Technologies and MC shipping to retrofit a large cargo vessel with vertical airfoils to augment propeller propulsion.
The ship, Pyxis Ocean, has been retrofitted with what BAR Technologies calls WindWings, and has been under test at sea since August 2023. The 37m tall, solid, steerable sails are deployed electrically from the bridge, and once deployed, onboard sensors adjust the sails for an optimal configuration.
The goal is not to replace diesel propulsion, but to supplement it, allowing lower throttle settings to maintain a desired steady-state speed. Under optimum conditions, BAR reports that the Pyxis Ocean achieves fuel savings of 11 tons per day.
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Want to watch this podcast as a video? This Week in Engineering is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as End of the Line, Designing the Future, Manufacturing the Future, and the Engineering Roundtable.

With over 150 countries signing a Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030, tracking will be essential worldwide.
A purpose-built satellite, MethaneSAT, has been launched to do just that, with the satellite a project of the Environmental Defense Fund. Data will be available, to everyone, worldwide.
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Want to watch this podcast as a video? This Week in Engineering is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as End of the Line, Designing the Future, Manufacturing the Future, and the Engineering Roundtable.

According to Kelly Blue Book, 2023 was a record year for U.S. electric vehicle sales, with 1.2 million vehicles delivered, resulting in a 7.6% total U.S. market share, up from 5.9% in 2022. Fourth-quarter EV sales were up year-over-year by 40% — big numbers, but lower than the 49% year-over-year gain in the third quarter. 
Cox automotive predicts that 2024 will see EV market share in the U.S. reach 10% of all vehicles. Growth is slowing and dealer inventories of electric vehicles in America are climbing, and some manufacturers such as Ford have begun offering incentives to move EVs. A fundamental reason in the reduction in electric vehicle sales incentives in America and Europe was a persistently high MSRP of electric vehicles, caused by the high cost of batteries. 
With high interest rates making the financing of expensive purchases even more expensive, buying with persistent inflation in other consumer goods, but optional electric vehicles worldwide may be slower than predicted.
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Want to watch this podcast as a video? This Week in Engineering is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as End of the Line, Designing the Future, Manufacturing the Future, and the Engineering Roundtable.