Union Pacific testing DOC on railroad locomotive
19 January 2007
Union Pacific railroad of Omaha, NB, commenced a one-year long test of a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) on a diesel electric long-haul locomotive operated in the Los Angeles area. The project is a part of the locomotive PM control technologies testing program announced by Union Pacific last year.
The locomotive was subjected to EPA locomotive standards testing before and after the DOC was installed, using standard EPA locomotive certification fuel (2,913 ppm S) and ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel that UP is now using for intrastate locomotives in California.
During this initial testing, the 17-year-old locomotive met the EPA Tier 2 (2005) new locomotive requirements for PM emissions. The test results were:
- Using ULSD fuel without the DOC reduced PM emissions by 4% compared to the use of standard EPA diesel fuel.
- Using ULSD fuel with the DOC reduced PM emissions by approximately 50%, hydrocarbons by 38% and CO by 82%.
The DOC was installed on an EMD SD60M locomotive powered by an EMD 16-710-G3A two-stroke, turbocharged, aftercooled V16 diesel engine rated at 2850 kW. The DOC was applied pre-turbine, within the exhaust manifold due to both space and exhaust temperature considerations.
The DOC system, designed and manufactured by MIRATECH Corporation, consisted of a re-designed exhaust manifold that held eight catalyst banks, each containing two flow-through catalyst elements of dimensions 30.5 cm × 30.5 cm × 7.6 cm. The DOC elements employed a 300 cpsi metal foil substrate (EcoXcell by Ecocat) coated with a platinum-based catalyst.
The testing was conducted at the Southwest Research Institute. The results will be presented at the ASME meeting in Pueblo, CO in March. Most of project funding was provided by the National Vehicle Fuels and Emissions Laboratory (NVFEL) of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) based in Ann Arbor, MI.
In December 2006, the Union Pacific railroad also started a year-long evaluation of a diesel particulate filter on a railroad locomotive. The MobiClean™ diesel particulate filter system with active, burner-based regeneration developed by HUG Engineering of Switzerland was also supplied by MIRATECH.
Source: UP, Miratech