Last year, a startup business in Pittsburgh, PA, was looking for a fleet willing to test its biofuel conversion system. It turns out that the firm, Optimus Technologies, didn’t need to go far to find such a fleet, garnering interest from its home city of Pittsburgh.
“One of the things we pride ourselves on is being a laboratory for new technologies, and with Optimus being a local firm, this was a great [opportunity],” says Grant Ervin, sustainability manager for the city.
Like most cities, Pittsburgh’s fleet is a broad array of vehicles, but it was five International model dump trucks that were selected to test Optimus’ Vector conversion system. Pittsburgh has been testing the system since last summer on three International 7400 4x2 trucks and two 4300 4x2 models. Each is a 2005 or 2006 model-year truck and each worked this winter in snow-removal operations.
The Vector system, which is awaiting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approval for general sale, allows a truck to run on biofuels such as those made from vegetable oil or refined waste vegetable oil. The vehicle can also run on diesel fuel. It uses diesel for startup, shutdown or fallback operation, then switches to biofuel for the majority of the power. The system has been designed for use in commercial vehicles. Optimus says the Vector system is compatible with all modern emissions after-treatment systems.
According to the company, fleets using the Vector system could see up to an 80% reduction in emissions and a 25% cut in their fuel bill. Payback on the system, which costs around $9,000, is relatively quick, points out Optimus.
The Vector system, which integrates with existing engines, is a bolt-on conversion system that reduces operating costs without rebuilding or replacing existing engines, Optimus notes, and is engineered to optimize the use of existing biofuels as well as new fuels as they emerge. The current version awaiting approval is built for use with model-year 2004-2006 Navistar DT466 engines. It is easily installed by fleet technicians, Optimus says.
The system comes with software that helps optimize the use of biofuels without driver input and enables tracking of the system. While Pittsburgh does not have concrete data to share, the city has been happy enough with the performance of the vehicles that it is considering adding 10 more units, Ervin says.
He adds that there has been no additional maintenance needed as a result of the system, and the vehicles ran about three-quarters of the time on locally sourced biofuel. The biofuel the city is using is costing about 25% less than diesel in the Pittsburgh area, Ervin says.
“We are very impressed and very happy with the Vector systems’ operations, especially during the harsh winter we just had,” said Paul Ostrowski, fleet contract manager for the city’s Office of Management and Budget. “We were pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to add the conversion systems and by the emissions improvements they provide to our road maintenance trucks. We can see how Optimus could help meet emissions mandates for municipal fleets.”
Pittsburgh has a Climate Action Plan that calls for it to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2023, using 2003 as a baseline. Transportation-related emissions account for about 25% of the city’s carbon footprint, Ervin says.
Optimus was founded in 2010 as a way to commercialize five years of research into the development of biofuel systems for diesel engines, the company says.
“We expect Vector to be used on intermediate- and beyond-useful-life engines initially,” said Colin Huwyler, CEO and founder of Optimus. “That said, we see the day when biofuel solutions will be provided by engine manufacturers on new trucks as well. This vision is driven by the knowledge that other alternative fuel solutions are prohibitively expensive and do not provide the same results as biofuels.”
Optimus says the system can be run in a wide range of fleet vehicles, including dump trucks, day cab tractors and construction equipment.
