Blackburn Energy Wins Award for Reduced Fuel Consumption, Capturing Wasted Energy

ROWLEY – Two Marines sit in the cab of a 1200,000-pound Logistics Vehicle System Replacement (LVSR), watching the enemy in Middle Eastern desert of the Middle East.
In a program known in the Marine Corps as “Silent Watch,” they run their air conditioning, computers and radars, but are invisible to the enemy’s thermal and acoustical radars. On the modern battlefield, “You have to be stealthy and sneaky,” said Andrew Amigo, Blackburn Energy’s founder and CEO.
Using a smaller version of the system the Marine vehicle does, a long-haul truck driver no longer has to idle its engines during its downtime to power its computers, entertainment system and keep the sleeping quarters comfortable.
The truck, installed with this system, also uses 20 percent less fuel, a major savings for long-haul trucking firms.
Both advances in military and civilian transport have Blackburn Energy, a Rowley firm, to thank. Its RelGen system captures wasted energy from the driveshaft of the giant vehicles and converts it to energy stored in battery packs.
For this innovative system, Time Magazine named Blackburn one of its top green technology companies for 2024. Last month, Gov. Maura Healey named Blackburn one of the most innovative manufacturers in the Commonwealth. And the state legislature recognized the company for its leadership in manufacturing.
“Our technology decarbonizes commercial transportation faster than other technologies, including the adoption of electric trucks,” Amigo told state Rep. Kristin Kassner, who nominated the company for the governor’s and legislature’s awards.
Amigo, who grew up driving 18 wheelers with his father, left practicing international law a few years ago to develop a system that stored electricity in batteries to keep drivers from having to idle their trucks in their downtime. But soon his creative mind found ways to power every system on the truck other than the driveshaft.
The result. Trucks installed with Blackburn’s RelGen system increase miles per gallon the trucks burned, reducing fuel consumption by 20 to 30 percent.
“Our globally patented technology was invented, developed, and is manufactured here in Massachusetts,” Amigo said.
Kassner said, “This technology literally captures wasted energy and can be installed on anything with a drive shaft — innovation at work.”
The system, which was developed and patented globally first at the Mass Clean Energy Center, at CI Works in Amesbury and now at a business park behind the Clark School in Rowley, caught the attention of General Motors and Budweiser, two of the world’s largest manufacturers and operators of truck fleets.
Blackburn also attracted the interest of the U.S. Defense Innovative Unit, which plans to employ the technology in Marine Corps transports that haul supplies, particularly fuel, in some of the world’s most difficult terrains.
Working to overcome the challenges of the modern battlefield for Amigo has been “fun.” Where commercial trucks have a four extra batteries to store power for the RelGen system, the Marines need eight with a goal of adding 10 to 12 times the amount of power.
The entire system must be able to be installed by one Marine in a forward base using a 100-pound box of parts. Nothing can be drilled into the truck frame. And none of the parts can impinge on the cab and the Marines inside it.
The Marines just returned the first of two LVSRs to Blackburn after driving one of the mammoth vehicles 2,000 miles through sand and water at its Aberdeen (MD) Proving Grounds.
When they took it for testing, the Marines testers took along a box of spare parts, assuming the arduous tests would break pieces of the system. They returned the box of parts unused.
“We passed!” Amigo said. The system did not break.
The Marines now plan to take the RelGen system to a final prototype.