California SCAQMD petitioning EPA for national ultra-low NOx standard for trucks
19 May 2016
The Governing Board of California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) earlier this year voted to petition the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to adopt tougher emission standards for engines of heavy-duty trucks to help the region meet federal clean air goals. The petition requests EPA to adopt an “ultra-low NOx” emission standard for heavy-duty truck engines that is up to ten times more stringent than the current standard.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) plans to adopt such a standard for trucks sold in California; however, most trucks operating in the state are purchased outside of California and therefore are not subject to the state’s emission standards.
Without a nationwide ultra-low NOx emission standard, SCAQMD argues, California will not be able to meet the 2023 deadline for achieving the federally mandated 8-hour ozone standard, which was adopted in 1997 and set at 80 parts per billion. Nor will the region be able to meet the 2031 deadline for the 8-hour ozone standard that was adopted in 2008 and lowered to 75 parts per billion.
During the past three years, SCAQMD has led the effort to develop an ultra-low NOx emission compressed natural gas engine for refuse-hauling trucks. The 8.9 liter engine, produced by Cummins Westport Inc., was recently certified by CARB and is expected to be commercially available mid-year 2016. (Earlier post.)
SCAQMD is now working with Cummins Westport and other partners to develop a larger ultra-low NOx emission engine for goods movement trucks.
Achieving these federal ozone standards will require about 50% further reduction of smog-forming NOx in the region, beyond all current regulations by 2023, and about 15% beyond that by 2031.
If California adopts an ultra-low NOx emission standard for heavy-duty trucks but US EPA fails to do so, 14 years after such a standard is adopted NOx emissions from trucks will decline only by about 30%, SCAQMD said. If CARB and US EPA both adopt the standard, truck emissions in the state will decline approximately 70% during the same time frame.
Cali always leads the way! :)
Posted by: TeslaRedux.co | 18 May 2016 at 08:56 PM
EPA and other environmental agencies should push for requiring all new vehicles with combustion engines to become zero emission cars apart from CO2. You can eliminate all other pollution elements from a combustion engine by using a HEPA filter (like the one that cleans Tesla’s cabin air) on the exhaust gasses. That will remove everything apart from nitrogen, CO2 and any residual oxygen. It will be expensive and heavy and it will consume energy as the exhaust gasses needs to be pumped through the HEPA filter under pressure and the filter will require maintenance. However, by requiring all fossil and bio fuel burning cars and power plants to clean their exhaust gasses by HEPA filters all air pollution could be eliminated. Only remaining problem is CO2 which is not an air pollutant but only a greenhouse gas. This is just an idea that I have not seen any economic calculations on. However, technically it can be done. The remaining question is could it be prohibitively expensive?
With HEPA filters on all fuel exhaust sources it will also be easy to verify whether companies are in compliance with the law as any detectable pollutants from the exhaust will implicate non-compliance. We need a legal system that has zero tolerance for air pollutants so that we can save approximately 7 million people from dying prematurely each year from air pollution as estimated by WHO.
Eliminating air-pollution should be the top priority for global politics above everything else because the scale of the problem is bigger than any other problem on this planet including terrorism, AIDS, global warming, malaria, etc.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 19 May 2016 at 01:49 AM
Henrik:
I'm thinking another way on this. Lately we have learned that many large transportation devices work quite well using battery electric drivetrains, especially refuge trucks, short haul trucks and buses. In fact buses are up to six times more economic to operate than diesel buses. As battery technology advances; it will only get better and eventually electric drive trains will encompass long haul trucks. Currently, it might even make sense to swap out batteries on long haul electric trucks, if the economics pencil out.
I like your idea when it comes to ships, which are by far the worse polluters per unit on the Planet.
Only long distance airplanes are left and I like hydrogen fuel cells generating electricity driving ducted fans for propulsion. Short to medium distance aircraft within land spaces can be replaced by hyperloop.
Of course, the real goal is to quit using fossil fuels for all energy.
Posted by: Lad | 19 May 2016 at 01:25 PM
Lad you are right. It is battery tech that will solve air pollution for land based vehicles. EP mocked me a bit for my belief that HEPA filters could do much for limiting air pollution in combustion cars. I looked a bit more into it and he was right. HEPA does not stop a range of polluting gasses in the exhaust and only stops PM3.0 and above. We need to stop PM2.5 and below as well especially in turbocharged engines that produces a lot more of that kind of air pollution.
The more I look into it the more I realize that the combustion engine as a technology is at its limit. It still pollute way too much to be acceptable long-term and the remedies to make it pollute less is not working well enough and are also prohibitively expensive.
There is really only one solution left that will solve all problems. Go BEV and make them fully self-driving to avoid the range anxiety issue and slow charging times. And sell miles instead of cars in order to take advantage of the high durability and low operating cost of BEVs versus gassers. It will take some time. However, Tesla’s success in this field will eventually force everyone else to go in this direction as well or simply die out in the competition that follows.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 19 May 2016 at 11:54 PM