Scientists at the Center for Environmental Research and Technology at the University of California have received a $US2 million grant for a world first study of hybrid construction vehicles.
The two-year project, which is being funded by the California Air Resources Board, will allow researchers to evaluate the emission reduction benefits of two commercially available hybrid construction vehicles: a Caterpillar bulldozer and a Komatsu hydraulic excavator.
?Hybrid construction vehicles are just now becoming available,? said Kent Johnson, the principal investigator on the project. ?We have been asked to use our emissions testing experience to quantify what their benefit is.?
The project is the latest in a nearly 20 year history of emissions testing at the Center for Environmental Research and Technology. Its initial research focused on cars in a stationary setting. Later projects shifted to trucks and on-the-road testing. Today, much of the work is done with portable emission measurement systems which have been used on on-road and off-road vehicles, stationary sources, locomotives, port vehicles, aircraft, harbour craft, and ocean-going vessels.
The research is part of a larger effort by the California Air Resources Board to expand the use of hybrid technology to help meet the goals of AB 32, a 2006 state law that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 – a 30 per cent reduction. It also calls for an 80 per cent reduction below 1990 levels by 2050.
Little is known about the potential benefits of hybrid technologies for construction equipment because of their unique and diverse duty cycles when used. Manufacturers are saying the hybrid vehicles reduce fuel needs by 20 per cent and cut emissions by 30
Per cent, Johnson said.
Half of the $2 million grant will be used as an incentive voucher to get 20 to 30 hybrid construction vehicles in use. The other half will fund testing in six vehicles, which will be scattered throughout California.
The behaviour of these vehicles will be characterised on a second-by-second basis during in-use operations at construction sites using portable emission measurement systems. Researchers will design standardised tasks, such as lifting a heavy object. The hybrid vehicle?s performance will then be compared to that of conventional diesel-powered vehicles.
The project will help establish the methodology for making comparisons under such varied conditions and also consider the differences between emerging hybrid implementations by leading manufacturers.
Data from the project could contribute to a voluntary hybrid incentive program being administered by the California Air Resources Board to fund clean vehicle and equipment projects, research on biofuels production and the air quality impacts of alternative fuels, and workforce training.
Source: Rock Products (US), Pit & Quarry (US)