Fred Weber Inc., a highway contractor and aggregates producer in greater St. Louis, has gone “green.” The company is protecting the environment and its pocketbook by beginning to install Combustion Catalyst Systems (CCS) on its fleet of diesel equipment. While the system is designed to reduce pollutants emitted by diesel engines, the company got an even bigger surprise.

“At first we were a little skeptical,” said Ed Moss, maintenance manager for the construction firm. “We tested the device on an engine loading limestone at one of our mines, and it showed a reduction in particulates of 50 percent. What was just as impressive was that it also showed an average fleet wide fuel savings of over 15 percent.  And, when our mechanics dismantled the engine, which had run for 7,000 hours, the internal parts looked brand new.

“Fuel savings while extending the life of the engine is not a rocket-science proposition,” he added. “After 7,000 hours of runtime and saving three gallons per hour is 21,000 gallons of fuel in just one engine.” Moss believes that the usable life for the engine can be extended by about 5,000 hours or two years.

Design elements
Phoenix-based Emissions Technology designed the catalyst system, which is the size of a large cereal box and is installed under the hood, near the diesel engine’s turbocharger. The technology makes the engine combustion cleaner and more efficient by injecting a platinum-based catalyst into the combustion chamber. The concept is the same as taking a catalytic converter and installing it on the front end of the combustion cycle, rather than on the exhaust.

Today, the 75-year-old Fred Weber company runs 11 mines and quarries that are diesel intensive, and all could benefit from the CCS. Fred Weber is committed to improving air quality, and Moss intends to install 50 more catalyst systems this year, well on his way to outfitting his fleet of 300 diesel running generators, loaders and dredgers.

According to Troy Bohlke, a founder and vice president of marketing for Emissions Technology, “The catalyst system wasn’t even designed necessarily to save fuel or even help engines run clean, which we discovered as an additional bonus. Rather, it was designed to reduce particulate emissions from diesel engines, particularly in California, where pollution controls are more tightly regulated.”

According to the American Lung Association, diesel engines produce nearly 20 percent of all nitrogen oxides in outdoor air. Nitrogen oxides are a major contributor to ozone production and smog and are thought to be the cause or the exacerbating agent of a number of respiratory health problems.

Because of these health and environmental concerns, a number of states are penning stricter emissions control legislation, sending companies scrambling for ways to retrofit old, non-compliant diesel-powered vehicles. Their choices are limited to purchasing new equipment, which is cost prohibitive, or finding less-expensive, after-market retrofit solutions.

Fred Alvis, owner of Mobile Equipment Sales and Services Inc., which distributes the catalyst system in the Midwest, was the genesis for Moss and Fred Weber Inc. using the CCS. Alvis received similar results after testing a wheel-loader diesel engine similar to the one tested by Moss.

A no-brainer
The CCS also was beneficial for New York-based Carver Sand and Gravel and its quarry superintendent, Blake Sowards.
When Bob Smith, regional sales manager for Tymark LLC, a distributor of aftermarket diesel emissions control products, approached Sowards about a “pollution-busting” product that also decreased fuel consumption, it was a no-brainer.

What Sowards didn’t know was how much this product could save his company and how quickly he would get a return on his investment.
Sowards first installed the CCS on a diesel generator set. Three weeks after the installation, fuel consumption dropped five gph – from 23 to 18, or 22 percent. Capitalizing on the initial success, Sowards installed a second CCS on a diesel-powered 450 hp loader. Fuel consumption dropped from 7.5 gph to 6.2, a decrease of 17 percent. The generator set and the loader were being used in a limestone quarry in Schoharie County, about 20 miles west of Albany.

Realizing the benefits of the CCS, Sowards installed a third on a diesel-driven 550 hp excavator also used in the quarry. After the break-in period, fuel consumption fell from 13 gph to 9 gph, a difference of 30 percent. After seeing the results of the first three installations, Sowards has installed three more systems and is preparing to install the seventh by mid-August.

“The two things we noticed right after the installation were that the engines were putting out less black smoke, and there was a noticeable increase in power while the engines were loaded,” Sowards said. “The fuel savings came a few hundred hours later, which completely blew us away.”

Rewarding reaction
As the exclusive distributor of the CCS in New York and Texas, Tymark’s Smith already knew the type of reaction he would receive. “First, customers see that the engine is putting out less smoke,” he said. “Then they feel a noticeable surge in horsepower. But it’s always the fuel savings that comes later that has them dancing in the streets.”

According to Smith, Tymark technicians can install a CCS unit in 1½ to three hours. Most of the installations are done “in the field” to reduce the amount of time the equipment is not in operation at the work site. Tymark, based in Albany, N.Y., also services the units and provides refill bottles of the platinum-based catalyst. 

Sowards estimates that Carver will save in excess of $40,000 this year in diesel fuel alone, causing the company to quickly put into action a plan that calls for the retrofitting of Carver’s entire fleet of diesel engines.

“We will retrofit the equipment that consumes the most fuel first, and then work our back way back toward our smaller inventory,” Sowards said.
According to independent third party lab tests conducted by Olson-EcoLogic, CCS will cut black smoke or particulate matter an average of 45 percent, hydrocarbons 55 percent, carbon monoxide 25 percent and nitrogen oxide 17 percent. Fuel consumption will decrease between 10 and 15 percent.

Growing health and environmental concerns in New York are prompting state-sponsored legislation that would closely mimic California’s strict environmental laws.

“The CCS has become a multifaceted product,” said Bohlke, the vice president of marketing and investor relations for Emissions Technology. “It reduces harmful emissions so diesel operators can quickly become emissions compliant; it reduces fuel consumption so it saves operators money; it increases the available power to the engine, so the engine can do more work; and it decreases the wear and tear on the engine so it lasts longer. Best of all, operators can break even in three to five months.”

Emissions Technology Inc., www.emissionstech.com
Tymark LLC, www.tymarkllc.com