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.
Airport-based Alternative Fuel Vehicle Fleets
2/1/2001
Airport-based Alternative Fuel Vehicle Fleets describes why the Airport 'niche market' is uniquely suited for the use of alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles. Learn why ground support equipment and landside vehicles make such good candidates for alternative fuel use and how airports such as Denver International, LAX, and Boston's Logan have been successful in implementing AFVs.
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.
The U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen Program Summary of Analysis Projects 1994 - 2000
1/1/2001
The U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen Program has funded a wide variety of analysis projects in support of its mission to conduct research and engineering development for the purpose of making hydrogen a cost-effective energy carrier for utility, buildings, and transportation applications. The goal of the analyses is to provide direction, focus, and support to the development and introduction of hydrogen through evaluation of the technical, economic, and environmental aspects of hydrogen technologies. This document contains summaries of 76 reports or publications of analysis work funded by the Hydrogen Program form 1994 through 2000. The purpose of this work is to help determine areas of focus for future analyses and also to provide a quick reference for studies already completed.
Authors: Ogden, J.;Strohbehn, J.;Dennis, E.
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.
Determining the Cost of Producing Ethanol From Corn Starch and Lignocellulosic Feedstocks
10/5/2000
The mature corn-to-ethanol industry has many similarities to the emerging lignocellulose-to-ethanol industry. It is certainly possible that some of the early practitioners of this new technology will be the current corn ethanol producers. In order to begin to explore synergies between the two industries, a joint project between two agencies responsible for aiding these technologies in the Federal government was established. This joint project of the USDA-ARS and DOE/NREL looked at the two processes on a similar process design and engineering basis, and will eventually explore ways to combine them. This report describes the comparison of the processes, each producing 25 million annual gallons of fuel ethanol. This paper attempts to compare the two processes as mature technologies, which requires assuming that the technology improvements needed to make the lignocellulosic process commercializable are achieved, and enough plants have been built to make the design well-understood. This places the lignocellulose plant costs on a similar level with the current, established corn ethanol industry, whose costs are well known. The resulting costs of producing 25 million annual gallons of fuel ethanol from each process were determined. The largest cost contributor in the corn starch process is the feedstock; for the lignocellulosic process it is the capital cost, which is represented by depreciation cost on an annual basis.
Authors: Kelly Ibsen, Andy McAloon, Frank Taylor, Robert Wooley, Winnie Yee
On the Road in 2020: A Life-cycle Analysis of New Automobile Technologies
10/1/2000
This report is a description of work done at MIT during the past two years to assess technologies for new passenger cars that could be developed and commercialized by the year 2020. The report does not make predictions about which technologies will be developed nor judgments about which technologies should be developedissues for the marketplace and for public policy that are not examined here.
The primary motivation for this study was the desire to assess new automobile technologies which have the potential to function with lower emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) widely believed to contribute to global warming. The GHG of most concern here is carbon dioxide (CO2), but methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) can also be important. If public policy or market forces result in constraints on GHG emissions, automobiles and other light-duty vehiclesa key part of the transportation sectorwill be candidates for those constraints since the transportation sector accounts for about 30% of all CO2 emissions in OECD countries, and about 20% worldwide.
Notes: Copies of this document can be downloaded from the MIT Laboratory for Energy and Environment Web site at: http://lfee.mit.edu/publications/PDF/el00-003.pdf.
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.
Waste Management LNG Truck Fleet Final Data Report
8/1/2000
Waste Management, Inc., based in Houston, Texas, is the largest waste management service company in North America. This report addresses activities at one of Waste Management's facilities in Washington, Pennsylvania, south of Pittsburgh. This site has been operating seven heavy duty LNG refuse trucks (Mack trucks with E7G engines) with the first LNG truck starting operation in August 1997. The following document describes the results of data collection and evaluation of five of the seven heavy-duty LNG refuse trucks compared to three similar heavy-duty diesel refuse trucks operating in the Washington, Pennsylvania area.
Effect of Ethanol Fuel Additive on Diesel Emissions
8/1/2000
Engine-out emissions from a Volkswagen model TDI engine were measured for three different fuels: neat diesel fuel, a blend of diesel fuel and additives containing 10% ethanol, and a blend of diesel fuel and additives containing 15% ethanol. The test matrix covered five speeds from 1,320 to 3,000 rpm, five torques from 15 Nm to maximum plus the 900-rpm idle condition, and most of the points in the FTP-75 and US-06 vehicle tests. Emissions of particulate matter(PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx), unburned hydrocarbons (HCs), and carbon monoxide (CO) were measured at each point, as were fuel consumption, exhaust oxygen, and carbon dioxide output.
PM emissions were reduced up to 75% when ethanol-diesel blends were used instead of neat diesel fuel. Significant reductions in PM emissions occurred over one-half to two-thirds of the test matrix. NOx emissions were reduced by up to 84%. Although the regions of reduced NOx emissions were much smaller than the regions of reduced PM emissions, there was considerable overlap between the two regions where PM emissions were reduced by up to 75% and NOx emissions were reduced by up to 84%. Such simultaneous reduction of both PM and NOx emissions would be difficult to achieve by any other means.
HC and CO emissions were also reduced in the regions of reduced PM and NOx emissions that overlapped. Because the ethanol-diesel blends contain less energy on both a per-unit-mass basis and a per-unit-volume basis, there was a reduction in maximum torque of up to 10% and an increase in brake-specific fuel consumption of up to 7% when these blends were used.
Authors: Cole,R.L.; Poola,R.B.; Sekar,R.; Schaus,J.E.; McPartlin, P.
Heavy-Duty Truck Demonstration with a 400-HP DDC Series 60G LNG Engine, and Support for the Downtown Los Angeles LNG Station
6/9/2000
The Trucking industry has taken an active interest in the use of engines powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) to reduce NOx and PM emissions. However, major barriers exist to widespread use of LNG in trucking applications, including reduced performance and higher initial capital costs compared to diesel-fueled vehicles, as well as a limited fueling infrastructure. To help address these barriers, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, joined with the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD)to contract with a team led by the San Jose Transportation Technology Group of ARCADIS Geraghty & Miller. The focus of the contract was to upgrade a Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC) Series 60G (S60G) engine for increased power and torque, and demonstrate this engine in an LNG-fueled semi-tractor.
Today's Biopower
6/1/2000
Fact sheet that provides an overview of the U.S. Department of Energy's Biopower program. Describes the research and development and outreach and education efforts of the program.
Authors: U.S. DOE Biomass Program