Project Goals and Objectives:

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1 Emissions Testing and Impact Analysis Hybrid Electric Diesel Delivery Vehicle in the Houston Region 1 Houston Advanced Research Center Alliance for Environmental Innovation, a project of Environmental Defense Project Director: David Hitchcock November 2003 Project Title: Emissions testing of prototype diesel/electric hybrid commercial pickup/delivery vehicles (PUDs) and assessment of potential emission reductions in the Houston-Galveston nonattainment area from widespread use in delivery fleets Project Goals and Objectives: To encourage FedEx Express to place its hybrid electric delivery trucks in the Houston- Galveston non-attainment region once they are developed. To perform emission testing of three prototype hybrid electric pickup/delivery vehicles to be available for this purpose in the fall of To evaluate the potential emission reductions from widespread implementation of these vehicles in the Houston region. To identify mechanisms, barriers and incentives for use of these vehicles in Houston and other areas in Texas. To inform fleet managers and policy makers about this technology and its potential air quality effects. Support of TCET Objectives The Texas Council on Environmental Technologies was established to identify and evaluate new technologies and to facilitate deployment of those technologies that would provide measurable and creditable air quality benefits in Texas. This project would support these goals by collecting and evaluating data on the emission benefits of an emerging technology affecting a major target for on-road emission reductions including both NOx and fine particulate reductions. It would demonstrate the potential emission benefits for the Houston-Galveston non-attainment region once such vehicles are available for deployment. Furthermore, the fleet sponsor of the project, FedEx Express, is pursuing a fast track program for full-scale production and deployment of this new technology. This project supports the aims of that effort, which intends to place vehicles on the road by As such, this project represents an essential step in the process of introducing potentially much cleaner vehicles within a relatively short time horizon relevant to the State Implementation Plan. Technologies to Be Developed 1 NOTE: Project information contained in this document may have changed since this project was initiated. Page 1

2 Trucks of all kinds pose a particularly difficult challenge with regard to emission reductions. Their powertrain requirements and operational characteristics favor diesel engines designed to transport heavier loads. Many commercial trucks, such as delivery vans, operate in a stop and go pattern that can contribute to higher emission levels and lower energy efficiencies. Finding suitable replacement vehicles and associated powertrains that are cleaner and more efficient is a challenge being taken on by many organizations and businesses. Urban delivery trucks are a relatively small part of the urban fleet, but because of the large amount of travel and the operational characteristics of these vehicles, they represent a particularly large share of energy consumption and emissions. In the Houston region, Class 4 vehicles make up less than 1% of the total vehicle miles traveled. However, they contribute almost 2.5% of NOx mobile source emissions as estimated in recent mobile source emission modeling (TNRCC on HGAQSE On-Road Mobile Emissions Inventory Directory for August 30, 2000). There are approximately 4,600 Class 4 trucks registered in the 8-county Houston region. They represent about 8% of all registered trucks over 8,500 pounds. In August 2000, FedEx, the world s largest express transportation company, and the Alliance for Environmental Innovation, a project of the non-profit environmental organization Environmental Defense, entered into a partnership to create the next generation delivery truck. The project will fundamentally change the energy and environmental profile of FedEx s fleet of pick-up and delivery trucks, and will serve as a model for other companies to upgrade their fleets and continue to push for cleaner, more fuel-efficient technology. The FedEx-Alliance partnership leverages FedEx s purchasing power to signal a demand for new transportation options. The project is being conducted on an aggressive timeline designed to push technology development, support public policy, encourage replication, and ultimately, to put cleaner trucks on the road as soon as possible. The project s goal is to have trucks that will work as well as FedEx s current white delivery trucks while costing about the same over the vehicle s lifetime. Alternative technologies will be needed to meet these goals while minimizing emissions of particulate matter (such as PM 2.5 ), smog causing emissions such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and greenhouse gases (such as CO 2 ). The FedEx initiative is being conducted in four phases and project plans include the following: Develop vehicle designs that achieve at least a 50 percent improvement in fuel economy, and a 90 percent reduction in exhaust emissions as compared to the baseline vehicle. Construct, conduct durability testing, and refine prototypes of those designs. Select the best design for further improvement and in-service testing of pre-production vehicles. Build and evaluate 10 to 50 pre-production vehicles in FedEx Express revenue service. Purchase production-level vehicles by late Phase 1 involved FedEx and the Alliance in the development of a functional specification for FedEx s commercial pickup/delivery (PUD) vehicle that will replace the present W-Series PUD vehicle, and will offer at least equivalent utility while providing significant reductions in fuel Page 2

3 consumption and operating emissions, in addition to being cost-competitive over the lifetime of the vehicles. The functional specification will specify a PUD vehicle that achieves at least a 50 percent improvement in fuel economy, and a 90 percent reduction in exhaust emissions as compared to the baseline vehicle. The baseline vehicle is FedEx model year 1999 W700 truck. This is FedEx s standard white walk-in pick-up and delivery truck with a cargo capacity of approximately 670 cubic feet, and 6,000 pounds. This truck and model year were selected as the baseline vehicle because it represents the bulk of FedEx s fleet currently on the road. Once the functional specifications were completed, proposals were then sought from vehicle manufacturers for construction of prototype vehicles. In response, over 20 proposals to develop the new truck were received from suppliers, representing a wide variety of companies, technologies and designs. FedEx and the Alliance reviewed the proposals together and selected three supplier teams with the most viable proposals to move forward into Phase 2. In Phase 2, the supplier teams are developing new vehicle designs and constructing and testing their prototype vehicles. Prototypes will be delivered to Southwest Research Institute in September 2002 as part of this proposal. FedEx and the Alliance are working with vehicle manufacturers, including Allison Transmission Division of General Motors, BAE SYSTEMS Controls and Eaton Corporation. The manufacturers are building vehicle designs targeted to meet the stated goals of the project and the detailed requirements of the functional specification. They are currently constructing prototype vehicles, to be delivered in September 2002, for the purposes of testing emissions and durability so that the vehicle design might be refined. The emission testing is part of this project. Several design details are still being evaluated by the suppliers, but the FedEx prototype vehicles will be parallel hybride diesel electric vehicles. They will likely include emissions controls such as diesel particulate filters and possibly NOx reduction after-treatment. The engines themselves will likely be designed to reduce emissions through modifications such as cooled exhaust gas recirculation. Depending on the final configuration of engine and aftertreatment, the vehicles will likely require low or ultra low sulfur fuel. Recent research shows that hybrid electric vehicles (particularly those with direct-injection engines) have similar projected ranges of well-to-wheel energy efficiency as fuel cells. They also have design advantages such as regenerative braking, which make them well suited for pickup and delivery trucks. Additionally, unlike electric or compressed natural gas engines, hybrid electric trucks use a widely available fuel and do not need dedicated fueling infrastructure. This is critical to FedEx, which does not centrally fuel its fleet, and to encourage widespread adoption of the new truck by other fleets. Furthermore, in tests of buses used in New York City, hybrid electric vehicles achieved dramatically better fuel economy than either standard diesel buses (65% improvement) or CNG buses (as much as 100% improvement). These fuel savings add to the economic incentive for using environmentally advanced technology. Hybrid electric technology also significantly reduces vehicle emissions, including greenhouse gases, particulates and air toxics. In the New York City bus test, hybrid electric technology Page 3

4 resulted in a 20% to 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to either conventional diesel or compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles. These hybrid electric buses also have lower particulate matter emissions (50% to 90 %) and NOx emissions (30% to 40 %). The hybrid electric buses exhibited the lowest carbon monoxide emissions of any of the buses tested. The challenge for suppliers in this project is to combine advanced pollution control technologies with new engine technologies to achieve both optimum fuel use and minimum emissions for pickup and delivery trucks. In Phase Three of the project, FedEx and the Alliance will select the best one or two prototype designs for further improvement and in-service testing of up to 10 to 50 pre-production commercial vehicles. These new trucks will be evaluated on the streets for fuel economy, emissions, durability and operations under real world conditions. The Alliance will work together with FedEx to select the cities where these tests will take place, and to define a testing protocol that ensures good data collection and management. They will also continue to work with the supplier teams to refine the truck designs and to evaluate costs, performance and environmental improvements to the trucks. One of the objectives of this project is to use this and possible future funding support to encourage FedEx to place some of these vehicles into operation in the Houston area where emission reductions are needed and other fleet operators can learn about this new technology. Finally, Phase Four is the purchase of commercial production vehicles into FedEx s fleet, which is scheduled to begin at the end of The Alliance will take the lead on preparing a final report for the project and on publicizing the project results. The goal in this phase is to gain the attention of other fleets that might be able and willing to adopt the new truck technology. Emission Reductions and Air Quality Benefits Emission testing of the prototype vehicles will provide measures that can be applied to the Houston region to determine how deployment of these vehicles will affect air quality. Emission reduction goals for these vehicles are 90%. Each prototype vehicle will undergo a battery of tests evaluating performance, fuel efficiency and emissions. This proposal by HARC is focused primarily on the emissions reduction results. The purpose of the testing is to compare the performance of the prototype trucks to a baseline vehicle, which has already been tested by FedEx using a specified protocol developed in concert with the Alliance. The same protocol will be used for the prototype vehicles so that comparisons are valid. Independent testing will be conducted by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, which also conducted the testing on the baseline vehicle. FedEx and the Alliance selected SwRI because of its reputation and experience in vehicle and engine testing. The HARC project focuses on the emissions characterization portion of the vehicle testing. Four regulated pollutants will be measured total hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Additional tests will be conducted to determine sizing and distribution of particulate emissions. These data are needed because of emerging information that links particle size with certain health impacts from diesel emissions. The Page 4

5 possibility of PM 2.5 exceedances in the Houston region is of considerable interest and, therefore, this information will be useful as research on this pollutant moves forward. The test vehicles will be installed on a chassis dynamometer and operated over a modified Federal Test Procedure (FTP) test cycle (previously defined and used for baseline testing) and in accordance with SAE protocol. Bulk gaseous and particulate emission measurements will be made using procedures outlined in the 1979 EPA report titled Recommended Practice for Determining Exhaust Emissions from Heavy-Duty Vehicles Under Transient Conditions. Emissions of HC, CO, CO2, and NOx will be measured during transient testing. Following diesel engine testing protocols, total HC and NOx concentrations will be continuously monitored in the dilute exhaust over each test, and the integrated results used in computing emissions. NOx correction factors for engine intake air humidity will be applied as specified in the transient FTP for diesel fueled engines. Concentrations of CO and CO2 in the proportional dilute exhaust bag samples will be determined by nondispersive infrared (NDIR) instruments. Concentrations of HC, CO, CO2, and NOx will be processed along with flow parameters and vehicle operating parameters to compute mass emissions on the basis of distance (g/mi). These computations are based on equations specified in the Code of Federal Regulations. Particulate emissions will be measured using dilute sampling techniques as specified in the transient FTP for diesel fueled engines. Particle size distribution will be determined using a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) and an electrical low pressure impactor (ELPI). The system will be used to continuously measure size distribution and number count during transient and selected steady-state operation. The results from the testing will provide the total number of particles in the exhaust stream, particle size versus number of particles, the standard deviation of the distribution, the mean of the distribution, and the mode or size with the highest number of particles. NOTE: As with other emerging technologies, early performance data will pose questions of confidentiality. Therefore, the availability of testing results and their use must respect the requirements of the companies that have developed and own the technologies and the primary sponsor of this technology development, FedEx. HARC will develop a technical plan for analyzing these data and producing results while respecting the needed confidentiality associated with this technology. HARC will work with the Texas Council on Environmental Technology, FedEx and the Alliance to ensure that the project goals are met while meeting the requirements of the various interests. Determining Air Quality Benefits: Recognizing the need for a certain level of data confidentiality, HARC and the Alliance will work together to apply the emission testing results to the region to determine overall potential air quality benefits from the use of these hybrid electric vehicles. To accomplish this, HARC will estimate the number of comparable vehicles that currently operate in the region and vehicle projections for future years. Several data sources will be used: TNRCC mobile source modeling, vehicle registration data, fleet inventories compiled for alternative fuels programs, and national transportation and fuel studies. In addition, HARC will conduct a survey of some existing fleets in the Houston region to identify those that could potentially utilize hybrid electric trucks. Page 5

6 Second, HARC will identify the different types of vehicles that are included in the inventory categories. The vehicle class designations used in mobile source modeling are based primarily on weight and fuel types. The configuration of the PUD vehicle used by FedEx and the prototypes may not be directly transferable to other vehicles in this weight category. It is also likely that there are vehicles in other categories that could utilize this technology. HARC will evaluate vehicle characteristics to determine other types of vehicles that could use this particular technology. Operating characteristics of these vehicles are needed to apply emission results. This will primarily include number of miles traveled and the type of travel. These factors are available from EPA and industry studies. Third, HARC will apply emission factors for the various types of emissions identified in the prototype emission tests to appropriate fleets in the region as identified above. This part of the analysis will examine market penetration rates and timing of vehicle turnover to provide measures of the extent of potential emission reduction impacts in the region and the timing of those impacts. The intent here is to provide an overall gauge of potential emission reductions. This will not include economic analyses that will eventually be needed to determine how the vehicle market would respond to this new technology. The results of this analysis will provide an overall estimate of emission reductions that would result from widespread introduction of hybrid electric trucks in the Houston region. In its analysis, HARC will identify opportunities and barriers that exist in Texas and the Houston region for introducing hybrid electric vehicles. One possible barrier is the potentially higher capital cost anticipated for such vehicles. Operating and maintenance costs are expected to be somewhat lower, but until there is sufficient demand, incentives may be needed to place these vehicles in service. HARC will seek advice from national experts on the related technology and market issues for hybrid electrics. HARC will examine policies and programs that could be applied to reduce the barriers, such as the use of the Texas Emission Reduction Program and any Federal technology programs or tax incentives for equipment purchases. Finally, HARC and the Alliance will work together to provide information to interested individuals and organizations regarding both the FedEx project and related applications of hybrid electric vehicle technology. This will include a briefing workshop at the end of the project to include experts on hybrid electric technologies and their application. For additional information, contact: David Hitchcock Houston Advanced Research Center 4800 Research Forest Drive The Woodlands, Texas / dhitchcock@harc.edu Page 6

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