California ARB to award $1M for locomotive advanced technology demonstration project
01 March 2012
The California Air Resources Board (ARB or Board) announced a solicitation for a grantee for up to $1 million to support up to two independent projects for demonstration and administration of advanced locomotive technologies that approach, meet, or exceed US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Tier-4 locomotive NOx and PM emission standards (i.e., 1.3 g NOx/bhp-hr and 0.03 g PM/bhp-hr), with a particular emphasis on higher horsepower line haul locomotives (i.e., 4,000 to 4,500 hp).
This solicitation is issued under the Assembly Bill 118 (AB 118) Air Quality Improvement Program’s (AQIP), Advanced Technology Demonstration Projects and is intended to fund technologies on the cusp of commercialization with the potential for significant targeted reductions in criteria pollutants and overall greenhouse gas emission reductions. This competitive solicitation is open to local air districts or other California-based public agencies that demonstrate the requisite technical and administrative expertise.
Locomotives as a source category are ranked 6th for the levels of contribution to California NOx emissions. NOx emissions are important because of their role in the formation of ozone and secondary PM. Ozone and PM contribute to significant respiratory and public health problems.
All work must be completed by 30 June 2014. The proposal deadline for this solicitation is 30 April 2012.
Tier IV is a regulatory standard that is technically well known, and quite easy to accomplish, on the scale of a locomotive. Why are we wasting money on a demonstration project?
There are already plenty of production locomotives meeting the comming standard. It probably means some Obama donor wants to cash in, and the money is just brurning a hole in some agency's pocket.
Hpw do you spell, B-o-o-n-d-o-g-g-l-e?
Posted by: Stan Peterson | 03 March 2012 at 08:59 PM