emissions

Gas Attacks: The challenges of environmental mandates

Ear worms are funny things. You know them. They're the songs that invade your thoughts. The one ringing through my head right now is crooned by none other than Kermit the Frog. Yep. The Muppet. The one who taught us, "It's not easy being green, having to spend each day the color of the leaves." If you want to know how tough it is to be green, look no further than the environmental rules and regulations affecting today's trucking industry.

Mack boosts fuel economy under Earth Day backdrop

AUSTIN, TX - Mack Trucks' choice of the setting and day to unveil a series of powertrain upgrades was no coincidence. Austin, Texas is known for its music and barbecue, but is also recognized as one of the Top 10 greenest cities in the U.S. And April 22 marks Earth Day. Collectively, they offered a fitting backdrop for changes made in the name of fuel economy. The 2017 Mack MP engine lineup will see fuel economy jump between 2.1 and 8.8% compared to today's models, while a new Predictive Cruise will effectively memorize terrain and enhance shifts when routes are repeated. Engine upgrades include a common rail fuel system, and turbo compounding that tranforms waste heat into torque on the camshaft. Fuel-saving enhancements have certainly put the engines on a diet. The common rail fuel system, widely used in Europe, allows for an assembled camshaft that is 27 pounds lighter than its single-piece predecessor. The MP8's cylinder block is also 44 pounds lighter than today's models. Even when turbo compounding is introduced on the MP8, the engine is still 33 pounds lighter than existing models.

Cummins Gets U.S. Regulatory OK for Engine Lineup

COLUMBUS, IN -- Cummins Inc. on Monday announced that it received certification for its complete lineup of on-highway diesel and natural gas engines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), meeting both the current EPA regulations and the second step in greenhouse gas (GHG) and fuel-efficiency standards which take effect in January 2017. Fuel efficiency is improved across the commercial vehicle engine lineup from 5.0 liters to 15 liters. "Cummins is committed to providing customer-focused innovation as soon as it is ready," said Amy Boerger, vce president of sales and support. "For example, efficiency improvements implemented in the 2016 ISX15 400 hp to 475 hp ratings will provide customers with fuel economy gains over the 2013 ISX15, ranging from 2.5 percent on the base engine up to 7.5 percent with a SmartAdvantage Powertrain with ADEPT SmartCoast features."

New U.S. Truck Emissions Rules May Be Tougher Than Expected

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - The trucking industry is finally hearing some frank discussion about Phase 2 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Greenhouse Gas Reduction proposal that Canada is expected to adopt in one form or another. At the FTR Conference in Indianapolis Wednesday, a Daimler Trucks North America regulatory expert told attendees the standards are likely to be much more difficult to meet than originally believed. Amy Kopin, regulatory and compliance program manager, said because of the variations that are inherent in some of the testing procedures, and the lack of reasonable compliance margins, truck and engine makers may need to design products to exceed the rule's requirements just to come in under the compliance margins. "There are all kinds of technical provisions and problems with compliance that EPA has built into Phase 2 that make the rule almost twice as stringent as it should be," Kopin said. "They have made incorrect assumptions with many of their baselines, and they have over-estimated the rate of customer uptake on many technologies as well. These all affect the way equipment makers earn their credits, and because of that, we will have to compensate for those shortfalls in other ways."