 Debra Johnson, president of Emissions Products International, and Troy Bohlke, partner of Emissions Technology, show the DC-100, a device used on diesel engines to cut pollution and increase fuel efficiency. (Heather Walton/Gannett News Service) |
By Luci Scott
The Arizona Republic
Imagine a device for car and truck engines that saves
fuel and reduces air pollution.
According to one
manufacturer, Phoenix-based Emissions Technology, that device is here.
"The growth is going to be phenomenal," predicted
Debra Johnson, who is handling distribution in Mexico for the
manufacturer. "It's a huge technological breakthrough for air quality."
The combustion catalyst system for diesel engines
went on the market last year. A version for gasoline engines also has been
developed.
The device for diesels, called a DC-100,
is an after-market product installed into the air intake of the engine
that makes the fuel burn more completely.
"You use
less fuel, get the same amount of energy and create less pollution," said
Ernest Cunningham, the company's general manager.
"It's getting an
incredible reception" in Europe, Cunningham said, because diesel there
costs about $4 or $5 a gallon, compared with prices in the United States
of about $1.85 for over-the-road fuel and about $1.25 for off-road.
The Scottsdale (Ariz.) Unified School District last
year tested several units for four months, and its transportation director
Daniel Shearer said he plans to recommend the district install the devices
on its 143 buses.
"We saw a dramatic reduction in
particulate matter.. . .the black smoke that comes out of the vehicle,"
Shearer said. He measured decreases of 40 to 80 percent, "which is pretty
phenomenal."
The suggested retail price is $649 for
the unit, and the replacement for the catalyst is $199. A catalyst
replacement is required every 400 hours, and fleet mechanics can do it
within a minute.
The company says the costs are
made up in fuel savings, or, as the executives like to say, the device is
a "self-funding solution to pollution."
Southern
Minnesota Construction, based in Mankato, is one of that area's largest
companies working in asphalt surfacing, excavation, site preparation and
rock products. Owner Richard Lundin said he put two DC-100 units on a
1,000-kilowatt twin-turbine generator that powers limestone-crushing
machinery at a quarry.
"I was burning 40 gallons
[of diesel] an hour before I put this on, and at the end of the season, I
was down to burning 26 gallons an hour," Lundin said. "If we run 2,000
hours at a savings of $12 an hour, that's $24,000 a year in savings. Less
the cost of the equipment and fuel additive, we would save in excess of
$20,000 net."
Johnson extols the virtues of the
DC-100 by citing numbers.
"Most people say if you
can get 3 to 5 percent fuel savings that's huge. We've been seeing
reductions of 20 and 25 [percent]," she said. "We generally quote between
5 and 30 percent fuel savings. Then to reduce pollution at the same time
is almost unheard of."
She said that in testing,
the device reduced emissions up to 80 percent in opacity (black smoke and
airborne soot); up to 66 percent in unburned hydrocarbons; up to 60
percent in carbon monoxide; and up to 27 percent in N2O, or nitrous oxide.
"This is the only technology ever known to reduce
[nitrous oxide] and soot at the same time, and with a net savings of two
to three times its cost. It pays for itself in two to six months on a
diesel vehicle," Johnson said.