Loading...
Resource Guide for Heavy-Duty LNG Vehicles, Infrastructure, and Support Operations
3/1/2002
This Guide is designed to assist decision makers and fleet managers, in considering the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in heavy-duty vehicles. The objective of the Guide is to answer questions regarding implementation of LNG fuel in the fleet, e.g., getting started, likely costs, benefits, and lessons others have learned. This Guide also provides you with contact information for representatives of companies now using these fuels, manufacturers and suppliers of the fuels, and technical and governmental reference materials. The information in the Guide is intended to be useful for both new and existing end-users of heavy-duty LNG vehicles, so that operations can be initiated or conducted in a cost-effective manner with minimal disruptions related to the new fuel technology.
Authors: Chandler, K.L.; Gifford, M.T.; Carpenter, B.S.
Children's Exposure to Diesel Exhaust on School Buses
2/1/2002
In the United States nearly 600,000 school buses transport 24 million students to school daily. Each year buses travel 4.3 billion miles as children take nearly 10 billion school bus rides. If rides average 30 minutes in each direction, students will spend 180 hours on buses each year. Collectively, U.S. children spend 3 billion hours on school buses each year. More than 99 percent of U.S. school buses are powered by diesel fuel. Diesel exhaust is comprised of very fine particles of carbon and a mixture of toxic gases. Federal agencies have classified diesel exhaust as a probable human carcinogen. Benzene, an important component of the fuel and exhaust, is designated to be a known human carcinogen. Components of diesel exhaust are genotoxic, mutagenic, and can produce symptoms of allergy, including inflammation and irritation of airways. There is no known safe level of exposure to diesel exhaust for children, especially those with respiratory illness. This study concludes that the laws intended to control air pollution in the U.S. must be strengthened to protect the health of children in several important respects. First, fixed monitoring facilities do not capture the variability in air pollution experienced by children. Second, air quality inside buildings and vehicles is not regulated by the EPA. Third, tougher diesel regulations adopted by the EPA last year are insufficient to protect health. Fifth, routine emissions testing for school buses is not required by federal law.
Authors: Wargo, J. Ph.D.; Brown, D. Sc.D.
Clean Cities Alternative Fuel Price Report - December 17, 2001
12/17/2001
This is the fifth issue of the Clean Cities Alternative Fuel Price Report, a quarterly newsletter keeping you up to data on the price of alternative fuels in the U.S. and their relation to gasoline and diesel prices. This issue discusses prices that were gathered from Clean Cities coordinators and stakeholders during the weeks of October 15 and October 22, 2001, with comparisons to the prices in the previous Price Report for the week of June 4, 2001.
Authors: Lott, M.
UPS CNG Truck Fleet Final Data Report DOE/NREL Truck Evaluation Project
10/1/2001
This is the final data report for the United Parcel Service compressed natural gas (CNG) truck fleet evaluation project in which selected Freightliner CNG delivery vehicles were evaluated as part of the DOE/NREL study. The plan for this evaluation was to test up to 15 CNG package cars and three diesel package cars operating in the Hartford, Connecticut, area from UPS's Waterbury, Hartford, and Windsor facilities. The trucks were all Freighliner Custom Chassis built with Cummins engines. The diesel vehicles had B5.9 engines, and the CNG vehicles had B5.9G engines. The data collection for the DOE/NREL program required a minimum of 12 months of operations data. Based on the age of the CNG and diesel package vehicles (model year 1997) and UPS's extensive data tracking system, the actual evaluation provided here was chosen to be a two-year data evaluation period.
UPS CNG Truck Fleet Start-Up Experience Alternative Fuel Truck Evaluation Project
8/1/2001
UPS currently operates 140 Freightliner Custom Chassis compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered vehicles with Cummins B5.9G engines. Fifteen are participating in the Alternative Fuel Truck Evaluation Project being funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Transportation Technologies and the Office of Heavy Vehicle Technologies. DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is conducting the study in collaboration with federal and state agencies and industry partners such as UPS.
Alternative Motor Fuels and Vehicles: Impact on the Transportation Sector
7/10/2001
This document is the testimony given by Jim Wells, Director of Natural Resources and Environment, U.S. General Accounting Office, before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. The statement discusses the extent of alternative fuel vehicle acquisition and fuel use, some of the barriers inhibiting greater use of alternative fuels and vehicles, and the federal tax incentives used to promote the use of alternative motor fuels and vehicles in the U.S.
Clean Cities Alternative Fuel Price Report - July 3, 2001
7/3/2001
This is the fourth issue of the Clean Cities Alternative Fuel Price Report,a quarterly newsletter keeping you up to date on the price of alternative fuels in the U.S. and their relation to gasoline and diesel prices. This issue discusses prices that were gathered from Clean Cities coordinators and stakeholders during the weeks of May 28 and June 4, 2001, with comparisons to the prices in the previous price report for the week of October 9, 2000.
Authors: Laughlin, M.
Future U.S. Highway Energy Use: A Fifty Year Perspective
5/3/2001
The U.S. Transportation system as a whole and the highway mode in particular will be much different in the year 2050 compared to today. The type and number of vehicles in use and the fuels employed to power them are unknown. Yet planning for the future requires acting on the information at hand: assessing the implications of the current path and the potential benefit of alternative futures. This paper puts transportation energy issues into a long-run perspective so that informed planning can begin early enough to make a decisive difference. This paper examines the global oil supply and demand over the next 50 years to show that a transition away from conventional oil will begin. The analysis reviews the energy, economic, and environmental implications of the alternatives that are available to meet some of the anticipated gap between world conventional oil production and the liquid fuels required to support a growing world economy. This paper then describes several U.S. Transportation technology strategies with a range of efficiency improvements and fuel substitutions, and calculates their first order effects on energy use, petroleum consumption, and carbon emissions over a 50-year time horizon.
Authors: Birky, A.; Greene, D.; Gross, T.; Hamilton, D.; Heitner, K.; Johnson, L.; Maples, J.; Moore, J.; Patterson, P.; Plotkin, S.; Stodolsky, F.
Notes: This report is available on the Office of Transportation Technologies (OTT) Web site at http://www.ott.doe.gov/facts/publications/hwyfuture.pdf
Taking an Alternative Route: A Guide for Fleet Operators and Individual Owners Using Alternative Fuels in Cars and Trucks
4/1/2001
DOE has prepared this guide to help you determine whether your fleet is covered by the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA) and the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct), and to provide information on available alternative fuels and vehicles. With this information, fleets can shorten the time it takes to improve air quality and pave our nation's road to energy independence by using AFVs certified to meet EPA's Clean Fuel Fleet standards as well as the mandated EPAct requirements.
SuperShuttle CNG Fleet Study Summary
3/1/2001
In March 1999, the Office of Technology Utilization's Field Operations Program began a fleet evaluation of CNG vans in the SuperShuttle fleet in Boulder, Colorado. The results for the evaluation were positive and the fleet is considering adding more alternative fuel vehicles in the future. This fact sheet summarizes the details of the study.
Authors: Eudy, L.
State Alternative Fuel Vehicle Incentives: A Decade and More of Lessons Learned
2/1/2001
This report assesses the effectiveness of state incentives and suggests incentives that might encourage new vehicle technologies. It does not assess whether a state should promote alternative fuel vehicles or whether such vehicles are the most effective means to reduce air pollution. Rather, the analysis analyzes the effectiveness of state incentives of the past decade and describes the characteristics of effective alternative fuel vehicle incentives and the fiscal implications for a state that is committed to support an effective alternative fuel vehicle program.
Authors: Brown, M.;Breckenridge, L.
Waste Management LNG Truck Fleet Alternative Fuel Truck Evaluation Project: Final Results
1/1/2001
Waste Management, Inc. a private company based in Houston, Texas, began operating a fleet of heavy-duty refuse trucks powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) at it Washington, Pennsylvania facility in 1997. Waste Management currently operates seven LNG refuse trucks at that site. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Heavy Vehicle Technologies sponsored a research project to collect and analyze data on the performance and operation costs of five Waste Management's LNG trucks in commercial service, for comparison with data on the performance of three diesel trucks operating on similar routes. This report presents an evaluation of five of the first seven LNG trucks produced by Mack. Mack partnered with Waste Management in Washington, Pennsylvania, to field test its natural gas engine design and gain experience.
Authors: Norton, P.;Chandler, K.;Clark, N.
Clean Cities Alternative Fuel Price Report - November 1, 2000
11/1/2000
This is the second issue of the Clean Cities Alternative Fuel Price Report, a quarterly newsletter keeping you up to date on the price of alternative fuels in the U.S. and their relation to gasoline and diesel prices. This issue discusses prices that were gathered during the week of October 9, 2000 with comparisons to the prices in the previous Price Report for the week of April 10, 2000.
Authors: Laughlin, M.
SuperShuttle CNG Fleet Evaluation: Final Report
10/1/2000
SuperShuttle originated in Los Angeles in 1983 as a shuttle service that focused on shared ride door-to-door airport passenger service. The company currently services 23 airports, with 1,000 vehicles transporting more than 20,000 passengers each day. SuperShuttle has been operating in Colorado since mid 1996, serving the local community and Denver International Airport (DIA). Their fleet of 85 vehicles includes 18 AFVs, fueled by both liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG). For this project, data was collected from 13 passenger vans operating in the Boulder/Denver, Colorado, area. The study vehicles were all 1999 Ford E-350 passenger vans based at SuperShuttle's Boulder location. Five of the vans were dedicated CNG, five were bi-fuel CNG/gasoline, and three were standard gasoline vans that were used for comparison.
Authors: Eudy, L.
