Technology Briefs - Nov. 11-18
The Latest Headlines:
- Study Shows New Diesel Engines Cleaner Than Natural Gas
- Toyota to Lease Fuel-Cell Cars to Japan
- SkyBitz Lands Growth Capital
- Toyota to Lease Fuel-Cell Cars to Japan
Study Shows New Diesel Engines Cleaner than Natural Gas
A new study by the Southwest Research Institute found exhaust from natural gas school bus engines contained higher levels of emissions regarded by environmental groups as potentially harmful than those from new, low-emission diesel engines.The study, sponsored by International Truck and Engine Corp. and ConocoPhillips, was presented to the Society of Automotive Engineers Monday.
In tests of three bus configurations – one natural gas and two different diesel buses – the natural gas bus had the "highest emissions of nitrogen oxides, nitrogen oxide, total hydrocarbons, non-methane hydrocarbons, methane and carbon monoxide," the report said.
"We now have a reliable basis for comparing the current relative toxicity of natural gas and diesel engine exhaust," said Dr. Charles A. Lapin, a toxicologist and co-author of a forthcoming SAE paper on the research. "The SwRI study shows that low-emitting diesel technology clearly has clean-air advantages over natural gas when it comes to school buses."
The Southwest Research Institute is a San Antonio, Texas-based nonprofit applied engineering and physical science research and development firm.
Natural gas has been cited as an alternative to diesel fuel as the trucking industry looks to comply with new clean air standards. Transport Topics
(Click here for the full press release.)
Toyota to Lease Fuel-Cell Cars to Japan
Toyota Motor Corp. will lease some of its hydrogen-powered fuel-cell passenger vehicles to the Japanese government, Bloomberg News reported Monday.Fuel cells, which convert hydrogen and oxygen into power and only emit water, are seen as a potential answer to the trucking industry’s quest to meet government air-quality standards.
The world’s third-largest automaker will lease the hybrid vehicles to the government for 30 months at a rate of just about $10,000 a month, Bloomberg said.
An analyst with ING Securities told Bloomberg that while fuel cell vehicles are not yet commercially viable, this is an important step in their development. Transport Topics
SkyBitz Lands Growth Capital
SkyBitz said it landed $18 million in venture capital funding to finance the rollout of its new satellite-based mobile equipment tracking and monitoring service.Investors in the privately held start-up in Dulles, Va., were AIG Highstar Capital L.P. and Industrial Technology Ventures, according to a SkyBitz announcement.
The SkyBitz Global Locating System provides a service that processes data from Global Positioning System satellites differently than most vehicle location services do. It uses satellite communications to transmit coordinates back to a data center.
This article appears in the Nov. 18 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
