EPA provides $300,000 for hybrid tractors
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
presented a $300,000 grant to the Port of Long Beach to fund the
development of hybrid-powered cargo-handling equipment and testing
at one of the Port’s container shipping terminals.
The 2-year, $1.2 million project will research,
develop, build and test ultra-low emissions hybrid cargo-handling
vehicles, known as “yard hostlers,” to improve air quality.
The project will test hybrid technology, which combines a clean
source of power with a clean diesel engine for dramatic emissions
reductions.
The Hybrid Yard Hostler Demonstration and Commercialization
Project will be headed by the Port of Long Beach in partnership
with the Port of Los Angeles. The testing will be at Long Beach
Container Terminal’s Pier F facility at the Port of Long Beach.
Cargo-handling equipment manufacturer Kalmar Industries will integrate
the cleaner hybrid system into the yard hostlers.
Three of the hybrid yard hostlers will be operated
and tested for six months at Long Beach Container Terminal. The
hybrid vehicles would use either a hybrid-electric system to combine
the cleanest available diesel engine technology with an electric
motor, or a hybrid-hydraulic system that would combine the cleanest
available diesel engine technology with components that use hydraulic
fluid compression to store energy.
The hybrid-drive system, coupled with the cleanest
available diesel engine, is expected to deliver a 93 percent reduction
in smog-forming nitrogen oxides and diesel particulate matter compared
to typical yard hostlers.
The hybrid technology is expected to reduce or
eliminate emissions during idling, which can represent more than
50 percent of the yard hostler duty cycle. The estimated cuts in
emissions from idling reductions during the six-month test are about
19 tons of nitrogen oxide and 200 pounds of particulate matter.
Long Beach Container Terminal is also conducting
tests on yard hostlers powered by liquefied natural gas, a project
which previously received grant funding from the EPA.
In addition to the $300,000 award from the EPA’s
West Coast Collaborative, the two ports have agreed to contribute
$375,000 each in funding and services toward the project. Kalmar,
Long Beach Container Terminal and the hybrid technology supplier
will provide an additional $150,000 in services. |
