STAMFORD, Conn. - Stamford-based Clean Diesel Technologies Inc. is continuing to make strides in improving its vehicle emissions technology, learning in recent testing that a biodiesel fuel blend produced dramatic reductions in pollutants when combined with the company's diesel oxidation catalyst.
CDTI said its Cleaner Burning Biodiesel fuel blends used with its Platinum Plus fuel borne catalyst and an additional catalyst reduced particle emissions by 51 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 9 percent over standard No. 2D diesel fuel.
"This combination represents a reduction of more than 100 pounds per year of regulated pollutants from a typical school bus and more than 200 pounds per year for a local delivery vehicle," said CDTI president and chief operating officer James Valentine.
"The most significant finding was the 9 percent reduction in NOx," Valentine said. The EPA is strengthening its diesel emission standards for heavy duty diesel trucks, buses and off-road equipment, said EPA spokesman John Millett. "The type of pollutants emitted is a concern because of its impact on health, particularly particulate matter and nitrogen oxide, a precursor to the formation of ground level ozone," he said.
Clean Diesel conducted the tests at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio after receiving requests from the National Biodiesel Board and its fleet customers.
Testing was conducted on a 1995 Navistar DT-466 engine typical of school bus, beverage and local delivery service fleets.
Laidlaw Educational Services, provider of bus service to school systems nationwide, recently began mixing diesel fuel with Clean Diesel's Platinum Plus fuel-borne catalyst and equipping buses with diesel oxidation catalysts.
The project is being done through a grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, administered by the National School Transportation Association.
