Philadelphia Diesel Difference Working Group Minutes

November 22, 2004

The Philadelphia Diesel Difference - Working Group Meeting
Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC)
Pennsylvania New Jersey Room
The Bourse Building
111 S. Independence Mall East, 8th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19106

IN ATTENDANCE:

Ken Brown, Gordon College
Ed Carreras, SynerTec International
Eric Cheung, Clean Air Council/PDD
Arleen Shulman (by phone), PA DEP
Chris Trostle (by phone), PA DEP
Morris Fine, AMS/PDD
Ray Chalmers, U.S. EPA, Region 3
Pat Egan, U.S. EPA, Region 3
Paula Krall, U.S. EPA, Region 3
Barbara Wilson, Krapf Bus Co.
Robert Neff, PA Turnpike Commission
Emily Bockian Landsburg, Energy Cooperative of Pennsylvania
Kevin Benson, Cummins Power Systems
Kirt Flowers, Amtrak
Jack LeBeau, E Global Solutions
Bill Ross, Sprague Energy
Larry Rosen, Rentar Fuel Catalyst
Joseph Grincewicz, School District of Philadelphia
Fred Cummings, Philadelphia International Airport
Brett Alkins, Johnson Matthew, Inc.
John Hadalski, City of Philadelphia Managing Director's Office
Chris Thomas, City of Philadelphia Managing Director's Office
Jienki Synn, DVRPC
Nathalie Shapiro, Greater Philadelphia Clean Cities/Energy Cooperative of Pennsylvania

MINUTES TAKEN BY:

Eric Cheung

INTRODUCTIONS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Morris announced a new anti-idling initiative is in the works. AMS will be coordinating with the Philadelphia Parking Authority to issue tickets for violations of the City's two anti-idling ordinances. One is an AMS regulation and the other is part of the traffic code. Both have been in existence for a while. Morris hopes to have more information by the next meeting. Next, Morris noted that the Clean Water Action (in its role as coordinator of the Community/Labor Tracking Refinery Committee) is accepting proposals for air quality projects in Southwest Philadelphia. The funding (a total of $200,000) was made available through an enforcement settlement with Sunoco, the Tracking Refinery Committee and the City of Philadelphia. Proposals will need to be approved by the enforcement settlement oversight group, which includes representatives from the three parties to the settlement. PDD will be applying for funding to pay for diesel retrofits in Southwest Philadelphia. Morris advised members that the PDD's Recognition WebPages have been expanded and now offer a profile of Wissahickon School District as well as brief descriptions of other fleets that have embarked on clean diesel projects. Finally, Morris wants the group to begin focusing on untapped Philadelphia fleets who might consider doing retrofits if they knew about the recognition program that has been established. For instance, with the U.S. Postal Service opening new facilities in Eastwick the local community has voiced concerns about the air quality impact. This creates an opportunity to reach out to the Postal Service and maybe have them become involved with PDD and pursue diesel retrofits. Morris is hoping that other PDD Working Group members have ideas of fleets to reach out to. Eric will distribute an email asking for suggested fleets. So far the fleets that PDD has specifically contacted are school district and municipality fleets.

ULSD AND FUEL PUMPS ISSUE:

Arleen Shulman and Chris Trostle of the PA DEP wanted to raise awareness about a potential problem with the use of ULSD. North Penn School District brought this to PA DEP's attention. Basically the problem has to do with ULSD causing fuel pump malfunctions, possibly due to the fuel's lack of lubricity. U.S. EPA has a report also indicating there are problems with ULSD and fuel pumps, but it suggests that the occurrence of these problems is rare. The fuel pump problem seems to occur in 1990-1994 engines, particularly with those manufactured by Bosch. The U.S. EPA speculates that the cleaning effect of ULSD dislodges dirt from the engine which then damages the fuel pump, or perhaps that the lower aromatic content of ULSD aversely affects the O-Rings. U.S. EPA has been warning fleet operators that once they fix the fuel pump problem to be sure they do not switch back to regular diesel, because the malfunction may happen again. North Penn wants a solution to the fuel pump situation since 32 of its buses have 1990-1994 diesel engines. Because the fuel pumps cost about $1,300, North Penn has already incurred $13,000 in expenses, although $7,000 of that was covered under warranties. Still, considering PDD is promoting diesel retrofit projects at little cost to school districts - assuming they get project funding from grants - this could be a discouraging factor. PA DEP would like to investigate to what extent lubricity is the issue with ULSD and is willing to help cover the cost of addressing the lubricity problem at North Penn. Once puzzle remains: why hasn't Wissahickon complained of any problems since it has similar buses as North Penn and uses the exact same fuel supplier (Sprague) and even relies on the same batch of ULSD?

2005 MEMBERSHIP CONTRIBUTIONS:

The solicitation letter has been completed and the membership contribution letters will be going out shortly.

PHILADELPHIA DIESEL DIFFERENCE ACTIVITIES UPDATE:

Eric is still trying to reestablish contact with the PA Asthma Bus to determine where it stands with its diesel project. Kirt Flowers noted that the project to retrofit 14 Amtrak vehicles was delayed because of missing parts. Now that the parts have been received, the project can proceed. The Air Toxics grant from U.S. EPA Region III that PDD decided should go to West Chester School District is still stalled for administrative reasons. Ray Chalmers explained U.S. EPA has some issues with giving to West Chester School District to purchase Johnson Matthey's DPFs, since the vendor was not competitively chosen. One thing that would helpful, Ray added, is if a study could somehow be tied to the project rather than just using all of the funding for a capital project. Eric said he had reached SEPTA and found out that the agency did not receive funding from U.S. EPA to buy ULSD. Therefore, it will continue to run its DPF-outfitted transit buses on regular diesel. Some PDD members expressed concern with this situation, but SEPTA explains that it cleans its DPFs often enough so that the increased sulfur content should not damage the equipment. Morris will look into whether the City of Philadelphia received U.S. EPA funding for additional retrofits, since it applied for the same program that SEPTA did.

Eric announced that there will be a Corporate Sponsorship Subcommittee meeting sometime before the next Working Group meeting to brainstorm how to get the corporate sponsorship program more active. This program, which encompasses the Adopt-A-School Bus idea, looks to convince corporations to provide funding for retrofits. So far PDD has been relying on governmental grants to fund clean diesel projects. The purpose of the subcommittee meeting is to brainstorm how to approach corporate sponsors and to come up with potential candidates to contact. Eric updated the PDD Working Group about a technical Frequently Asked Questions document that the Council is designing with the help of some school bus fleets and diesel retrofit technology vendors. When completed, this document will provide answers to common concerns diesel fleet operators may have when deciding whether to consider using diesel retrofits. Lastly, Eric mentioned that the PDD website has added a lot of useful content in recent weeks, including PowerPoint presentations from prior Working Group sessions. He also noted that the PowerPoint presentations from the very first Philadelphia Diesel Difference conference held in May of 2003 will be available on the website shortly.

SOUTHEASTERN PA CLEAN SCHOOL BUS COALITION:

The Coalition held its first meeting in October. At the meeting, members established the basic organizational structure of the Coalition and a mission statement. The next meeting of the Coalition will take place on Dec. 13th following the next PDD Working Group meeting. Eric said that he presented at the Pennsylvania School Business Officials Transportation Conference in October and at an educator's event in Delaware County called Teacher's Night 2004. The Coalition meanwhile had been working the past month on encouraging all school districts in the region to apply for Clean Buses for Kids diesel retrofit funding. Eric said he is aware of 14 school districts who applied: Union-Chadds Ford, Chester-Upland, Garnet Valley, Penn-Delco, Radnor Township, Rose Tree, Ridley, Southeast Delco, Hatboro-Horsham, North Penn, Upper Dublin, Upper Moreland, Wissahickon and Philadelphia School District. The Coalition believes the fact that they contacted all the greater Philadelphia school districts helps to account for such a successful level of participation. Eric also noted that a letter on behalf of PDD was sent to the U.S. EPA Administrator expressing concern that the Clean Buses for Kids funding excluded privately contracted bus fleets from applying.

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES:

Eric recited the following grant opportunities currently available for diesel mitigation projects: $200,000 from the National Clean Cities for biodiesel outreach and infrastructure development, $150,000 to $200,000 from the U.S. EPA for a demonstration project whereby verified diesel retrofit technologies are used in stationary diesel engines and $200,000 as part of a Sunoco settlement for Southwest Philadelphia projects that improve local air quality. PDD will apply for the Sunoco settlement money to pay for a diesel retrofit project in Southwest Philadelphia and Clean Air Council is looking at working with one or two companies to apply for the stationary diesel engine demonstration project. In other news, the Energy Cooperative Association of Pennsylvania announced that they were awarded an Energy Harvest grant from the PA DEP for a demonstration project to make biodiesel fuel from trap grease. The Cooperative dubs this project "Philadelphia Fry-O-Diesel." More information can be found here: http://www.fryodiesel.com/.

MONTHLY PRESENTATION:

Brett Alkins from Johnson Matthey presented this month on the process of installing DPFs in fleet vehicles. A DPF is essentially a muffler replacement, which burns soot produced by the vehicle. Since ash, which could not be burned, is left in the filter, it must be cleaned regularly. Every DPF that is installed must have a diagnostic module to monitor back pressure, temperature monitor, and a data logging device. A vehicle assessment needs to be done before installing a DPF, because the ability of the device to burn off pollutants is dependent on the exhaust temperature. Some engines do not burn hot enough to be able to use DPFs. This is in contrast to DOCs that are not exhaust temperature-sensitive and can work in any vehicle. Johnson Matthey offers two different types of DPFs to try and meet the varying circumstances it might encounter with a particular fleet. The CRT (continuously regenerating technology) is a basic DPF that relies solely on the exhaust temperature to work. It needs the engine to run at 260 ºC or above 40% of the time. The CCRT (catalyzed continuously regenerating technology) uses a catalyst to assist in burning off the pollutants. Thus, these devices only need the engine to run at 210 ºC or above 40% of the time.

Brett then went on to address other issues relating to DPFs. There are two main reasons why DPFs should be used in conjunction with ULSD. First, too much sulfur can clog the filter. Second, sulfur inhibits the DPF catalyst from working. DPFs can tolerate the use of high sulfur content diesel for a short period of time. DPF cost is very much tied to the quantity being purchased by a fleet. The required DPF cleaning can be done as part of an annual maintenance in order to minimize inconvenience.

EPA PHILADELPHIA PM ANALYSIS REPORT:

John Hadalski wondered whether anything more has been done concerning the report and presentation given by U.S. EPA in September. Ray Chalmers replied that U.S. EPA is not ready to issue its findings as a final report, but that the agency did receive a call from a reporter who had learned about some of what the report has determined through PDD's website. John wanted to make sure that Philadelphia will be able to alert the U.S. EPA with any last minute concerns before the report goes final. Ray Chalmers promised that Alvaro Alvarado will speak to the PDD group before any information is publicly released. John noted that Philadelphia is specifically concerned that the report singles out marine vessel emissions as a large source of pollution, since the City is actively trying to develop its river resources. Ray Chalmers answered some concerns about the accuracy of U.S. EPA's findings by explaining that while the study has not been peer reviewed it relies on techniques that have been peer reviewed. John reiterated that he wanted U.S. EPA to brief the City and the area counties before publicly unveiling its study. One study that U.S. EPA will be releasing in January is its National Air Toxics report.

NEXT MEETING AND LOCATION:

In some final announcements, Jack LeBeau said he no longer is with Rentar and is now working with E-Global, which provides consultation services concerning the entire retrofitting process. Jienki Synn noted that he would no longer be the DVRPC representative to PDD and that Emi Faloughi will be taking over. Finally, Ken Brown offered kudos to SEPTA for its new visible anti-idling signs.

Eric announced that the next meeting will be held Monday, December 13, 2004. He will have a list of meeting dates for 2005 based on the agreed upon general rule of holding PDD meetings the third Monday of each month. January's meeting, however, will be the second Monday to avoid conflicting with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.