President Biden recently visited the Cummins facility in Fridley, Minn., as part of his “Investing in America” tour. Coinciding with the visit, Cummins announced that in addition to recent investments in Fridley, the company is investing more than $1 billion across its U.S. engine manufacturing network in Indiana, North Carolina and New York. Cummins says the investment will provide upgrades to those facilities to support fuel-agnostic engine platforms that will run on low-carbon fuels, including natural gas, diesel and eventually hydrogen.
“I am delighted that we will have the chance to show President Biden the innovative work we are doing at our Fridley plant and our incredible Cummins employees who are doing it,” said Jennifer Rumsey, Cummins president and chief executive officer. “In just a few weeks, we will begin manufacturing one of the key pieces of technology for green hydrogen production that will help decarbonize our economy and drive the clean energy transition–the electrolyzer.”
The first field-test, fuel agnostic engines to be delivered to Walmart
The announcement includes Cummins’ plans to invest $452 million in its Jamestown Engine Plant (JEP) to upgrade its 998,000 square-foot facility in Western New York to produce Cummins’s fuel-agnostic internal combustion engine platform that leverages a range of lower carbon fuel types. The X15N is part of the new fuel-agnostic 15-liter engine platform produced at JEP.
Cummins customers, including Walmart, Werner, Matheson, and National Ready Mix, among others, are beginning to test the very first engines of the fuel agnostic platform, the X15N. Walmart will receive the very first field test unit later in April to take part in the field test of this industry-first, 15-liter advanced engine platform running on renewable natural gas.
Electrolyzers and hydrogen production
At the Fridley facility, Accelera by Cummins–Cummins’ zero-emission technology brand–will soon manufacture electrolyzers, which are a critical piece of the green hydrogen economy. Hydrogen produced by electrolyzers can power hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and is used in industrial processes like steel production, the company noted.
Cummins also stated that building electrolyzers in Fridley is helping to bring the supply chain for zero-emissions vehicles to the United States, particularly in heavy trucking industries. The Cummins Power Systems factory is a 1.1-million square feet full-service facility, concentrating on design, product, service engineering and manufacturing located just north of Minneapolis. Established in 1969, Fridley employs over 900 and will plan to dedicate 89,000 square feet of the existing facility to electrolyzer production starting April 24. This is a $10 million investment that will support 100 new jobs by 2024.
