NanoEFX for rail
NanoEFX is a passive, water-based air-filter treatment that helps diesel rail engines burn fuel more completely — supporting lower fuel consumption and lower emissions on locomotives, multiple units and maintenance machines, with no engine modification and no downtime.
| Treatment | Passive, water-based air-filter coating — not a fuel additive or ECU remap |
|---|---|
| Applies to | Diesel locomotives · Diesel multiple units · Rail-maintenance machines |
| Fuels | Diesel · Biodiesel · HVO renewable diesel |
| Application | Sprayed onto the existing air filter · 20–45 min · no downtime |
| Reapplication | By run-hours & engine size (locomotives are measured in operating hours) |
| Engine changes | None — no modification, remap or retrofit |
| Regulatory context | EU Stage V engine-emission standards (incl. railway engines) |
A coating on the air filter — not a fuel additive or a remap
NanoEFX is sprayed onto the engine's existing air filter, where it dries into a thin, breathable nano-coating. As the engine draws air through that treated surface, the coating conditions the intake air before combustion — supporting a cleaner, more complete and more efficient burn. For a rail fleet, that means the same treatment works across every engine that breathes through a treatable filter.
What it is
- A passive nanostructured intake-air treatment
- Applied to the air filter you already service
- Water-based — dries to a thin, breathable coating
- Works before combustion, at the intake-air stage
What it isn't
- A fuel additive or oil additive
- An ECU remap or tuning
- A mechanical retrofit or powered device
- Anything that changes how you operate
Three pressures every rail operator already feels
These are the forces that make intake-air efficiency worth acting on — independent of any single engine or duty cycle.
Diesel fuel is a core cost off the wires
On non-electrified lines, diesel fuel is a dominant operating cost. Because locomotives run long hours, even a modest efficiency gain accumulates across the fleet.
Emissions scrutiny on diesel traction
Rail engines fall under non-road emission standards such as EU Stage V, and operators face pressure to cut diesel emissions where electrification is not present. A more complete burn means less CO, unburned hydrocarbons and soot.
Lower-emission freight expectations
Freight customers increasingly ask for lower-emission transport and report their supply-chain emissions. Burning less fuel directly lowers the emissions attributed to a service.
Want the numbers for your own fleet? The ROI & EU ETS calculator models fuel-cost and carbon-cost savings from your own figures — you set the efficiency assumption.
Regulatory sources: EU Stage V — Regulation (EU) 2016/1628 (non-road engines) · Other regions (USA, Japan, China, and more) →
No trial data from this sector
Why this sector matters — independent figures
Electrification of the EU rail network rose from 39.9% of lines in 1990 to 57.6% in 2024. The remaining two-fifths of the network is worked by diesel traction — which is the part of rail this page is about.
Source: Eurostat — characteristics of the railway network in Europe. Published by the organisation named; retrieved 15 August 2026. These are sector figures, not our measurements — ours are below.
We have no rail data. No locomotive, railcar or shunter has been measured in any trial we hold.
The nearest evidence we hold
Nothing in our records is a close analogue. Rail traction runs long, steady, high-load duty, which is closer to marine main-engine operation than to road transport — and we hold no marine fuel figure we stand behind, because the one trial series that measured fuel did not follow the reapplication protocol we now recommend. The marine finding that does hold is not a fuel figure at all but a third-party engine inspection after 1,875 operating hours.
What a trial here would have to look like
Diesel traction is well instrumented and duty is repeatable, so a rail trial could be unusually clean: the same units on the same rosters, treated and untreated, over a season, with fuel drawn from the depot and tonnage logged.
Marine engine compatibility
Third-party inspectionThe nearest long-duty engine evidence we hold — an inspection result, not a fuel figure.
Read the trial →All trial results, including the weak and mixed ones → · every individual measurement we hold
How a trial is run and what each method can show: measurement methodology. What we measured at the exhaust: emissions. Everything in one place: the evidence section.
From a mainline locomotive to a maintenance machine
A rail operation is rarely one engine. NanoEFX applies to diesel rail engines that breathe through a treatable air filter, and it conditions the intake air regardless of the fuel burned.
Equipment types
Fuels
No workshop, no downtime, no new hardware
NanoEFX is applied by your own team, onto the air filter they already remove at service. It rides on the maintenance you do anyway rather than adding a new one.
What a cleaner burn means for a rail fleet
NanoEFX doesn't add energy or oxygen and doesn't modify your engine — it helps the engine waste less of the energy already in the fuel. NOx response is engine- and control-system dependent.
Common questions from operators
Does NanoEFX work on diesel locomotives?
Will it change the engine or its control systems?
How often does it need reapplying on a locomotive?
Does it help where lines are not electrified?
Does it affect a DPF, SCR, EGR or AdBlue system?
Don't take the claim — measure it
The most honest evidence is your own baseline. In a NanoEFX pilot you run a controlled trial on your own engines, measured against your own fuel data — and you only pay if it proves savings.