Episode 183 | Power Pivot | Hyliion
How does a company stay true to their original mission if they have to give up on their core solution? Cedar Park, Texas-based Hyliion faced that challenge late least year. They wanted to build electric-powered semi-trucks—big rigs.
“We had semi-trucks running, says Founder & CEO Thomas Healy. “We had them in fleets’ hands. They were running really well. We were getting good feedback from fleets.”
Unfortunately, adoption wasn’t coming fast enough. Thomas recalls these companies telling them they wanted to try these trucks for a while before placing a big order.
“If you're thinking about this from a startup company standpoint, the position we're in, we really need to go show our shareholders that we're driving volume adoption, we're getting units out there,” says Thomas. “And that was a little counter to what we were starting to hear from fleets, specifically.”
With the prospect of EV trucks beginning to fade, Hyliion announced a “strategic review” of alternatives to their powertrain business in late 2023. They ultimately settled on four “buckets”:
- EV Charging
- Waste Gas
- Prime Power
- Mobility
The tool that would get them there was the powerplant designed to run their trucks, a generator called the Karno. Hyliion acquired the technology from G.E. in 2022. Rather than combust fuel, the Karno uses “flameless oxidation” to generate heat. As the name implies, there is no light emitted from the process. This process is also much slower than traditional combustion, leading to a cleaner burn of the fuel. The heat generated then expands a “working gas,” which powers a piston and an electric generator.
This slow-burn process has been used for years to eliminate volatile organic compounds created in industrial waste streams. This came in handy when the Karno generator successfully used “dirty gas” produced in a West Texas oilfield to produce the heat needed to run the system.
Since the Karno only needs fuel for heat, they say they can run on over 20 common fuel types, ranging from diesel to hydrogen.
For now, Hyliion plans to stay focused on their 200kW Karno unit, and even announced plans for a larger, 2MW model. But Thomas says they continue to have an eye on the product that started it all.
“You're effectively making the locomotive of semi-trucks, says Thomas. “Personally, I still strongly believe in that type of a solution.”
Useful Links: