Total Transportation Services, one of largest drayage trucking companies in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, has begun using Cummins Westport new ultra-low emission natural gas engines for its trucking operations.
Available for order later this year, the 12-liter engine’s emissions will be certified by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to produce 90 percent less NOx than the current EPA standard for heavy-duty engines, and are equivalent to that of a truck powered by electricity from the electrical grid, Cummins says.
“The trucking industry is facing hard choices on how we are going to reduce our emissions impact, especially here in Southern California,” said Victor La Rosa, Total Transportation Services CEO and president in a statement. “We believe the quickest and most affordable way to cut our NOx emissions to essentially zero is with the new CWI engine and renewable natural gas (RNG).”
Cummins Westport president Rob Neitzke said the 12-liter engine is designed for heavy-duty trucks and “can also reduce GHG methane emissions by 70 percent or more when run on renewable natural gas.”
California regulators have approved a trio of Peterbilt trucks outfitted with the Cummins near-zero emissions natural gas engines for California’s green truck purchase assistance incentive program, Trucks.com reports.
In an earlier interview, Clean Energy president Harrison Clay said he expects the new Cummins engine to be a major RNG production driver.
“When you combine the new Cummins Westport engine with RNG in the medium- and heavy-duty trucking space, you’re able to get an environmental footprint that is cleaner than electricity, even if there were electric trucks that could perform the basic requirements of those vehicles,” Clay said. “This is a remarkable reduction in NOx, taking it down 90 percent. You combine this with RNG and you have arguably the cleanest possible vehicle you could have on the road.”
Across the US, commercial fleets and investing in low-emission natural gas trucks and infrastructure.
UPS last week said it plans to invest more than $90 million in natural gas trucks and fueling stations. This includes building an additional six compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations, adding 390 new CNG tractors and terminal trucks and 50 liquefied natural gas (LNG) vehicles to its fleet.
“In 2016, we used more than 61 million gallons of natural gas in our ground fleet, which included 4.6 million gallons of renewable natural gas,” said Mark Wallace, UPS senior vice president global engineering and sustainability.