Puget sound area becomes model for regional clean diesel solutions

Diesel Progress North American Edition, Oct, 2001 by Mark Clevenger

Look across Seattle on a spectacular clear day with the snow-capped Olympic Mountains etched precisely to the west, seemingly every crevice and glacier on Mount Rainier standing out to the south, and a scattering of other peaks to the north and east, and you'd wonder how this region with its sea breeze could ever have an air quality problem. But it does, thanks to the vagaries of the weather, particularly a sporadic inversion layer that traps smoke and other emissions and a widespread dependence on diesel power.

"The Greater Seattle area is among the 5 percent worst areas in the nation for the concentration of the most serious diesel emissions--formaldehyde, benzene, and acrolein, in particular," Dermis McLerran pointed out. "And given the slow turnover in diesel engines, we felt a real pressure to address the problem." Addressing air pollution problems is McLerran's mission in life. For seven years he has been the executive director of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, a regional state agency that covers King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap counties in western Washington.

With the agency leading the way, a variety of diesel users in the region put together the Puget Sound Diesel Solutions Program that will involve engine upgrades to clean up emissions from up to 5000 existing engines in public and private buses, trucks, refuse haulers, highway maintenance vehicles, and other equipment.

The Environmental Protection Agency officials felt that the program was so important that EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman flew to Seattle to announce the program. She said the program will serve as a national model of a public-private partnership aimed at using clean diesel technology to cut emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.

The cornerstone of the upgrades, according to McLerran, "will be use of new ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel. This will enable the use of exhaust traps to catch remaining soot particles, nitrogen oxides, and other air pollutants such as hydrocarbons."

The engine emissions cleanup will involve 50 percent of government vehicles and 30 percent of large commercial fleets, including Boeing Corp., in the four-county area, according to PSCAA information.

"Given the projected invocation of new diesel emission standards in 2007 and the potentially long turnover time for the diesel fleet, we recognized we needed to get an early start on a program," McLerran said. "In particular, a large fleet of heavy, diesel-powered dump trucks will be employed for the next two years in constructing a third runway at Seattle-Tacoma Airport."

"We also received reports on projects in other parts of the country and from Europe, where many localities are actually ahead of us in controlling air pollution. We were interested in particular in promoting a source ultra-low sulfur fuel in our area. Arco in California had undertaken a similar program with dramatic results.

"The Environmental Protection Agency also conducts the National Retrofit Program with some success. One of the first agencies to conduct a broad program utilizing low sulfur fuels and special catalytic conversion was New York Transit.

"EPA's Office of Transportation Certification and Compliance Division was quite helpful. Ron Sims, King County executive, agreed that the 'Metro" bus fleet would participate. Mayor Paul Schell of Seattle also agreed that city vehicles would participate.

"The Port of Seattle indicated an interest in cooperating. So we approached state refineries about interest in producing ultra-low sulfur fuel if a large enough customer base could be formulated. The Tosco Refinery (Union 76) in Ferndale agreed to the program."

Current EPA regulations allow use of fuels with 500 ppm sulfur. Tosco agreed to produce fuel rated at under 30 ppm. In 2006, new fuel standards will require diesel fuel with 15 ppm sulfur.

The diesel fuel to be produced by Tosco Refining (Union 76) is listed as "five years in advance of national laws that will require ultra-low sulfur fuel." The fuel will contain 98 percent less sulfur than that used in other parts of the country but will be similar to fuel used in California. The ultra-low sulfur fuel will initially be eight cents a gallon more than that charged for current refinery fuel. Transportation costs will be added.

Along with the fuel, the vehicles in the program will be fitted with catalytic trap systems costing between $4500 and $7500 per vehicle.

McLerran pointed out that the EPA has committed up to $2 million over the next few years to "leverage" the program. Cummins is contributing $400,000 and Detroit Diesel $300,000. Other organizations are being solicited.

"In a sense, we are acting as a 'broker' of funds, soliciting contributions and making grants to underwrite conversion activities," McLerran said.

Among participants in the program are Durham school buses in Everett, transit bus fleets in King County, corporate fleets owned by Boeing, Emerald City Disposal ref use and recycling trucks, Washington State Dept. of Transportation highway maintenance vehicles, and Port of Seattle vehicles.