 |
Engineering alumni design product to reduce diesel soot
| 
The familiar black cloud of soot is completely eliminated
when diesel engines are retrofitted with the Longview, and
air-contaminating emissions are drastically reduced.
|
A first-of-its-kind retrofit product for diesel engines —
the brainchild of three Berkeley Engineering alumni — has
been verified by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) as
effective in reducing noxious emissions and is being purchased
for installation on more than 1,700 diesel buses throughout the
Bay Area.
The device, dubbed the Longview, reduces particulate matter (PM)
— the tiny particles of black soot in diesel exhaust —
by 85 percent and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) by 25 percent. Both
PM and NOx emissions have been implicated in causing asthma and
other respiratory illnesses, and PM emissions are a toxic and
possibly carcinogenic air contaminant. NOx is also a prime contributor
to ground-level ozone, or smog.
With the device already installed on about 70 Caltrans trucks
and other state vehicles, the nine-county Metropolitan Transportation
Commission has allocated $13.8 million in federal and $1.8 million
in local funds to purchase and install the devices on diesel buses
throughout the Bay Area over the next two years. It is also being
evaluated for use in the Washington, D.C., Metro Area Transit
Authority bus fleet.
The Longview has been universally well received by diesel engine
operators, not only because of its effectiveness in reducing emissions
but also because it’s easy to install and has minimal effect
on engine efficiency. The rigorous CARB verification process makes
the product eligible for purchase through federal, state, and
regional incentive funds.
"We're trying to dispel the notion of the 'dirty diesel'
engine," says Bradley L. Edgar, executive vice president
and chief technology officer of Cleaire, the San Leandro company
that manufactures the product. Vastly improved over the last 20
years, he adds, the diesel engine will continue to evolve to a
cleaner, quieter, and lower polluting engine than the one we associate
with billows of black soot. Near-term future developments probably
include more diesel-powered passenger cars and a diesel-hybrid
engine.
|
Cleaire
engineers (left to right) Brad Edgar, Juston Smithers, Michael
Streichsbier, and Marc Rumminger demonstrate how the Longview
fits on a diesel school bus. Rumminger coined the name on
a day when rain had cleared the air of particulate matter,
noting that he finally had a "long view" of the
bay, the way it would look all the time if their product
were successful. |
"Diesel is vital to our economy. It’s used in mass
transit, transporting most goods, and in marine applications,"
Edgar says, citing diesel's fuel efficiency, engine durability,
superior handling with large loads, and other advantages over
the spark-ignited gasoline engine.
Edgar and partners Marc Rumminger and Michael Streichsbier were
all students together at Berkeley, earning their doctorates in
mechanical engineering in the mid-'90s. Edgar rounded them up
again to launch Cleaire in 2001 as a division of Cummins West,
Inc., to distribute, install, and service the Longview and other
Cleaire products. (Cummins West is the central and northern California
distributor for Cummins Inc., an international blue chip engine
manufacturing company.)
The Longview took about two years to develop and is engineered
to seamlessly replace the muffler on diesel vehicles. The device
combines a state-of-the-art PM filter with a NOx reduction catalyst
and a proprietary electronic controller to maintain system performance.
The result: That nasty cloud of black soot is completely eliminated.
Edgar fondly recalls the defining moment in his professional life
when Professor Robert Dibble, whose lab he was working in as a
budding graduate student, first inspired his interest in diesel.
"We were walking back to campus after a coffee break,"
Edgar says, "standing on the corner of Hearst and Euclid,
when a UC shuttle bus started up from the red light and sent up
an incredible billowing cloud of black smoke that nearly choked
us. Professor Dibble said, 'We ought to be able to do something
about that.' It was a pivotal moment for me in my research and
my whole career."
|
|
FOREFRONT takes you into the
labs, classrooms, and lives of professors, students, and alumni
for an intimate look at the innovative research, teaching, and
campus life that define the College of Engineering at the University
of California, Berkeley.
Published three times a year by the Engineering Public Affairs
Office. Have a comment about Forefront? E-mail
your letter to the editor. Click here
to learn more about the magazine. |
|
