INNIO Jenbacher designs and manufactures

gas engine A gas engine is an internal combustion engine that runs on a gaseous fuel, such as coal gas, producer gas, biogas, landfill gas or natural gas. In the United Kingdom, the term is unambiguous. In the United States, due to the widespread use of ...

s and

cogeneration Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elec ...

modules in the Austrian town of Jenbach in

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

. It is part of the INNIO portfolio of products and is one of their gas engine technologies; the other being Waukesha Engines. Jenbacher emerged from the former Jenbacher Werke, which was founded in 1959 and manufactured gas and

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-cal ...

s, and locomotives. The company was bought out by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable ene ...

in 2003. In November 2018 the company became part of INNIO as part of an acquisition of Advent International and was renamed INNIO Jenbacher GmbH & Co. OHG.

History

Although the company itself has a relatively short history, its origins go far back. In 1487, a mine and foundry was founded by the

Fugger The House of Fugger () is a German upper bourgeois family that was historically a prominent group of European bankers, members of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century mercantile patriciate of Augsburg, international mercantile bankers, and ven ...

family. In 1657, all Fugger properties in Tyrol were taken over by the state. Due to exhaustion of the copper and silver deposits, the mine changed its focus to iron. The company was acquired by Julius and Theodor Reitlinger in 1881. In 1909, the mine ran out of iron as well, and after a boom during the First World War only the foundry was left. At the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, all of Tyrol was seized and Aryanized, and the company was to 'work for the benefit of the country'. The plant made

brake pad Brake pads are a component of disc brakes used in automotive and other applications. Brake pads are composed of steel backing plates with friction material bound to the surface that faces the disc brake rotors. Function Brake pads convert the kin ...

s for the

Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...

, and from 1939 they made

airframe The mechanical structure of an aircraft is known as the airframe. This structure is typically considered to include the fuselage, undercarriage, empennage and wings, and excludes the propulsion system. Airframe design is a field of aerospa ...

parts and rocket motors in Jenbach (some to liquid-fueled

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or by using the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in ...

rocket engine designs from Hellmuth Walter KG) for

Heinkel Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

as the licensee. After the collapse at the end of the Second World War the factory was placed under public administration. It had to be converted to civilian production, and started out with

cookware Cookware and bakeware is food preparation equipment, such as cooking pots, pans, baking sheets etc. used in kitchens. Cookware is used on a stove or range cooktop, while bakeware is used in an oven. Some utensils are considered both cookware ...

, but also started with the repair of railway wagons. Because of the availability of appropriate specialists and skilled workers, it was decided to concentrate on the production of

s. The first product was a 15 hp two-stroke engine, which was very successful and was manufactured in large quantities. This was followed by more two-stroke and four stroke models of engine. The JW 15, 8 TO 15 Hp; the JW20, 15 to 20 Hp; and the JW20M, the same engine, but with inertial mass damping to counteract the vibrations of the single cylinder. The company was now pushed to develop generators, compressors and pumps of the same quality. In 1959 the company was constituted as Jenbacher Werke AG, the main shareholders being

Creditanstalt The Creditanstalt (sometimes Credit-Anstalt, abbreviated as CA), full original name k. k. priv. Österreichische Credit-Anstalt für Handel und Gewerbe (), was a major Austrian bank, founded in 1855 in Vienna. From its founding until 1931, th ...

with 35% and

Mannesmann Mannesmann was a German industrial conglomerate. It was originally established as a manufacturer of steel pipes in 1890 under the name "Deutsch-Österreichische Mannesmannröhren-Werke AG". (Loosely translated: "German-Austrian Mannesmann pip ...

with 26%, the rest being free float. Creditanstalt increased its share steadily and after the purchase of Mannesmann's share through the CA-controlled Andritz AG they acquired a vast majority of the share capital. In 1979, 1,550 people were employed at the plant. In 1988 the majority of the company was acquired by Auricon Beteiligungs AG. In 1991 it was organized into the Jenbacher Energy Systems AG (JES) and the Jenbacher Transport Systems Ltd. (JTS) divisions. In the same year, JTS acquired 29.9% of the British company Telfos Holding, which gave the company an influence on

Ganz The Ganz Works or Ganz ( or , ''Ganz companies'', formerly ''Ganz and Partner Iron Mill and Machine Factory'') was a group of companies operating between 1845 and 1949 in Budapest, Hungary. It was named after Ábrahám Ganz, the founder and t ...

-Hunslet, the former Hungarian locomotive works Ganz-

MÁVAG MÁVAG (''Magyar Királyi Államvasutak Gépgyára''; ''Hungarian Royal State Railroads' Machine Factory'') was the largest Hungarian rail vehicle producer. MÁVAG company was the second largest industrial enterprise after the Manfréd Weiss Stee ...

. On December 12, 1991, JTS attained majority share capital of Telfos, and bought out

's remaining share in 1993. In 1997, Jenbacher attempted to enter the

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

market with help from

AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, ...

through a Jenbacher daughter company called Integral Verkehrstechnik AG Jenbach. Integral lost over 22 million

Euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s from 1997 to 2001, and led to the sale of the Jenbacher rail car division to Connex. In 1998 Jenbacher started its relationship with Clarke Energy which is now one of its largest gas engine distributors, The remaining gas engine-energy division was acquired by General Electric in 2003. In 2018 GE sold its Jenbacher and Waukesha brands to the private equity company Advent International which created the new company INNIO.

Rail cars

Jenbacher's railway activities started in 1945, when they started performing repairs of

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles ca ...

for the French occupation forces. In 1949, they started making diesel engines,

power car In rail transport, the expression power car may refer to either of two distinct types of rail vehicle: *a vehicle that propels, and commonly also controls, a passenger train, multiple unit or tram, often as the lead vehicle; *a vehicle equipped ...

s, trucks and compressors powered by the aforementioned engines. In addition, they made rail cars for the

Austrian Federal Railways Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

and other railroad companies. Jenbacher Werke designated their locomotives according to a system derived from the type of power transmission, approximate performance, wheel arrangement or application and the operating weight. The ÖBB series 2060 was therefore the work designation DH200B28. The other models carried the name JW. The Railway engineering department was taken over by Molinari Rail.

Company profile and products

Jenbacher currently specializes in lean burn

s, including

plants and

containerized Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the pr ...

power generator sets utilizing said gas engines. Jenbacher began producing gas engines in 1957. Jenbacher's main facility still resides in Jenbach in Austria, and employs over 1400 workers. Jenbacher manufactures the gas engines from the ground-up at this facility, including in-house

crankshaft A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating shaft containing one or more crankpins, that are driven by the pistons via the connecti ...

s. Jenbacher gas engines are exclusively

Otto cycle An Otto cycle is an idealized thermodynamic cycle that describes the functioning of a typical spark ignition piston engine. It is the thermodynamic cycle most commonly found in automobile engines. The Otto cycle is a description of what hap ...

units with industrial grade

spark plug A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/ai ...

s providing ignition. Smaller models utilize

stoichiometric Stoichiometry refers to the relationship between the quantities of reactants and products before, during, and following chemical reactions. Stoichiometry is founded on the law of conservation of mass where the total mass of the reactants equ ...

combustion, while the larger engines are lean burn engines with prechamber ignition. Jenbacher engines run on

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...

landfill gas Landfill gas is a mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill as they decompose organic waste, including for example, food waste and paper waste. Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane ...

, sewage gas,

biogas Biogas is a mixture of gases, primarily consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste and food waste. It is a ...

, mine gas,

coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...

syngas Syngas, or synthesis gas, is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, in various ratios. The gas often contains some carbon dioxide and methane. It is principly used for producing ammonia or methanol. Syngas is combustible and can be used as ...

and

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-to ...

. Due to this flexibility they are often used in applications where gas would normally be

flare A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala in some Latin-speaking countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illumination, ...

d off or released into the atmosphere, to turn waste into energy.

Methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane ...

has a much higher

global warming potential Global warming potential (GWP) is the heat absorbed by any greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, as a multiple of the heat that would be absorbed by the same mass of carbon dioxide (). GWP is 1 for . For other gases it depends on the gas and the time ...

than CO₂, and it is therefore interesting for operators to burn gas in engines instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. Further applications include data centers, greenhouses or heat & power units for industrial use. They are also offered as containerised units.

Jenbacher J920 FleXtra

The Jenbacher J920 FleXtra is Jenbacher's newest product, a V20 gas engine delivering up to 9.5 MW (12,915 PS). When it is put into production it will be Jenbachers most efficient gas engine available with an

electrical efficiency The efficiency of a system in electronics and electrical engineering is defined as useful power output divided by the total electrical power consumed (a vulgar fraction, fractional Expression (mathematics), expression), typically denoted by the Gr ...

of 48.7%, and a

combined heat and power Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elect ...

thermal efficiency In thermodynamics, the thermal efficiency (\eta_) is a dimensionless performance measure of a device that uses thermal energy, such as an internal combustion engine, steam turbine, steam engine, boiler, furnace, refrigerator, ACs etc. For a ...

of over 90%. The J920 uses Miller cycle valve timing and two-stage turbocharging, along with a 'three-module' construction consisting of the engine itself, the

electrical generator In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts motive power ( mechanical energy) or fuel-based power ( chemical energy) into electric power for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam turbines, ...

and the turbocharging unit consisting of both

turbocharger In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pro ...

s and charge air coolers along with intake and exhaust piping and bypass valves. In common with most current

marine diesel engines Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

, the J920 has a segmented

camshaft A camshaft is a shaft that contains a row of pointed cams, in order to convert rotational motion to reciprocating motion. Camshafts are used in piston engines (to operate the intake and exhaust valves), mechanically controlled ignition systems ...

, along with combining individual

cylinder head In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head (often abbreviated to simply "head") sits above the cylinders and forms the roof of the combustion chamber. In sidevalve engines, the head is a simple sheet of metal; whereas in more modern o ...

s, the

cylinder liner In a reciprocating engine, the cylinder is the space in which a piston travels. The inner surface of the cylinder is formed from either a thin metallic liner (also called "sleeve") or a surface coating applied to the engine block. A piston is se ...

piston A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors, hydraulic cylinders and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-t ...

and

connecting rod A connecting rod, also called a 'con rod', is the part of a piston engine which connects the piston to the crankshaft. Together with the crank, the connecting rod converts the reciprocating motion of the piston into the rotation of the crank ...

into one easily removable

modular Broadly speaking, modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a s ...

'power unit' for ease of maintenance and overhaul.

References

Literature

* Franz Mathis: ''Big Business in Österreich''. Verlag für Geschicht und Politik, Wien 1986, * Sepp Tezak: ''Die Jenbacher Werke''. In: ''Schienenverkehr aktuell''. 1988/4, S. 12 * Helmut Petrovitsch: ''Lokomotiven aus Tirol. Chronik des Schienenfahrzeugbaues der Jenbacher Werke AG''. In: ''Schienenverkehr aktuell''. 1987/12 – 1990/6 (20 Teile)

External links

INNIO Jenbacher GmbH & CO OG

Jenbacher J920 - New Power Generation Technology - INNIO

Clarke Energy - GE Jenbacher Distributor and Service Partner
{{Authority control Electrical generation engine manufacturers Gas engine manufacturers Engine manufacturers of Austria Manufacturing companies established in 1959 1950s establishments in Austria 2003 mergers and acquisitions General Electric acquisitions Austrian brands Economy of Tyrol (state) Former General Electric subsidiaries 2018 mergers and acquisitions