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ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION OF EMISSION CONTROLS FOR HEAVY-DUTY DIESEL ENGINES
Citation:
TRENHOLM, A. R. AND M. KOSUSKO. ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION OF EMISSION CONTROLS FOR HEAVY-DUTY DIESEL ENGINES. Presented at Air & WAste Management Association's 98th Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN, June 21 - 24, 2005.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
While lower emissions limits that took effect in 2004 and reduced sulfur content in diesel fuels will reduce emissions from new heavy-duty engines, the existing diesel fleet, which pollutes at much higher levels, may still have a lifetime of 20 to 30 years. Fleet operators seeking to take advantage of economic incentives offered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and by state agencies to reduce emissions in older vehicles need unbiased data from an independent source to assess the performance of new control technologies as they become available. EPA's Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program, established in 1995, fulfills this need. Designed to accelerate the entrance of new environmental technologies into the domestic and international marketplace, it verifies the performance of innovative or improved technologies as an independent third party. RTI International, partnered with EPA, has responsibility for operating the ETV Program's Air Pollution Control Technology Verification Center (APCT Center). This paper focuses on the APCT Center's verification of technologies designed to control emissions from heavy-duty diesel engines. With input from the EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality's Voluntary Diesel Retrofit Program, the California Air Resources Board, manufacturers, end users, and other regulators, the Center has developed protocols to oversee verification of a wide variety of such technologies. To date, six verifications have been completed on diesel oxidation catalysts, fuel-borne catalysts, and particulate filters. This paper describes the verification process and the results of the completed verifications.