The U.S. Department of Energy, in partnership with the California Energy Commission and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, awarded $18 million to nine companies and universities to advance natural gas technology for trucks.
The goal is to sharply reduce carbon dioxide emissions from diesel-powered medium- and heavy-duty trucks, reports
While oil use of passenger cars has begun to plateau and decline in many industrialised countries, oil use from road freight vehicles continues to rise."
The March 6 announcement by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), part of the U.S. Department of Energy, is timely as the next day, California state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, introduced Senate Bill 44, dubbed “Ditching Dirty Diesel,” designed to phase out, over time, the use of polluting, diesel-fueled medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses in California.
One of the more interesting projects comes from US Hybrid Corp. of Torrance, Calif., which "will explore the development of a natural gas-electric plug-in hybrid, using a Cummins natural gas-powered engine and a lithium-ion battery pack to see whether a hybrid truck can operate over 24 months with close to zero emissions," adds Fialka.
The three universities that will submit projects are Michigan Technological University, University of Alabama and University at Buffalo. All nine projects and their sponsors are listed here.
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