According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), 70% of diesel particulate matter (PM) is emitted from off-road mobile sources, of which 54% is traceable to off-road construction equipment. Diesel particulate is categorized as a Toxic Air Contaminant (TAC) by CARB. A strategy that has proven very cost-effective for reducing harmful TACs is the re-powering of existing off-road construction equipment with new, cleaner heavy-duty diesel engines. The existing non-regulated engine is removed from the vehicle and scrapped. a new, CARB certified engine is then installed. In addition to reductions in particulate matter TACs, this air pollution reduction strategy also results in significant reductions in oxides of nitrogen (NOx), an ozone precursor pollutant.
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When originally proposed, "Tier 2" off-road diesel engines were the cleanest diesel technology available for heavy-duty off-road equipment. Prior to the start of vehicle re-powering, however, lower-emitting Tier 3 engines were introduced. To maximize the air quality benefits of the project, Tier 3 engines were used in the majority of the equipment repowers. The final configuration of the vehicle re-powers is as follows: Terex TS24B - Front engine Tier 3 Detroit Diesel (DDC) Series 60, rear engine is Tier 2 DDC Series 50; Caterpillar 651B - Tier 3 DDC Series 60; Euclid S24 - Tier 3 DDC Series 60. The re-power of the Caterpillar 651B scrapers took longer than originally anticipated. For many years, Caterpillar only allowed for the use of Caterpillar engines in their vehicles. This required that Valley Power Systems, the company that performed the engine re-powers, to reverse engineer modifications to install the Detroit Diesel Series 60 engines.
The objective of this project was to re-power twelve (12) existing pieces of construction equipment with new diesel engines. The equipment, owned and operated by Road Builders, Inc., included three (3) Terex TS24B twin engine scrapers, seven (7) Caterpillar 651B scrapers, and two (2) Euclid S24 scrapers. The existing engines in all project vehicles predated the first emission standards for off-road engines and were uncertified.
The results of this re-power project are very successful. The majority of the new engines are certified at Tier 3 and are literally five times lower emitting as compared to the existing engines.
The re-power of all twelve heavy-duty off-road scrapers has been completed as of April 2006. Road Builders Inc. has stated that they are pleased with the performance of the Detroit Diesel engines in their scraper vehicles.