Smoky Diesel Locomotive Turns Into A Clean Machine
On first glance, the hulking locomotive in Union Pacific Railroad's yard near the Port of Oakland looks like any other. But Locomotive 1378 doesn't have any smokestacks -- or the clouds of black smoke that typically puff from the diesel engines.
As part of an experiment to cut emissions from older diesel locomotives, the railroad has removed the two smokestacks from the locomotive and replaced them with a big stainless steel box that sits behind the cab.
That box contains the nation's first diesel particulate filters made for locomotives. The filters are devices that trap, then burn off most of the microscopic pollutants linked to premature deaths and lung disease.
"Lots of times with diesel locomotives, you see plumes of black smoke,'' said John Hedrick, an engineer with Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio, Texas, which installed the filters and will oversee testing. "With this filter, all you see are heat waves coming out.''
For the next year, the device will be used and tested in the Oakland yard. Three other devices -- one on another Union Pacific locomotive, two on Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway locomotives -- will be installed in the next few months and tested in California over the next year.
The goal is to reduce the particulate matter produced in rail yards, where diesel-fueled locomotives move rail cars and frequently idle.
"It deals with a very big problem with some rail yards, particularly in some cities like Oakland, where the yards are near residential areas,'' said Jerry Martin, a spokesman for the state Air Resources Board. "The community gets bombarded with these fine particles.''
The filter works by pushing the exhaust through two large blocks of high-temperature large silicone carbide with small square openings. The blocks capture the particulates, which are then burnt off every three hours with a small diesel burner. A small amount of carbon dioxide is emitted into the air.
"Based on the testing, we are getting an 80 percent reduction in particulates when this is used in the yard,'' said Mike Iden, Union Pacific's general director of car and locomotive engineering. "It's very efficient.''
Hedrick said the filter, developed by a Swiss firm and in use on six locomotives in Switzerland, is capable of eliminating 90 percent of the particulates.
The 1,500-horsepower diesel locomotive is equipped with an array of sensors that allow remote monitoring of the filter and the engine. So far, the filter appears to slightly decrease the locomotive's efficiency, causing it to use slightly more fuel, Iden said. But the true impact on efficiency and maintenance, as well as pollution reduction, won't be determined until a year's worth of data has been collected and analyzed.
"There are lots of questions that need to be answered and we expect to be able to answer them in a year,'' Iden said.
The testing of the emissions control devices is a cooperative effort involving the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe -- the nation's two largest railroads -- along with the state air board and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Regulators in recent years have focused on reducing emissions from new and existing diesel engines, and have included locomotives and rail yards as key targets.
If the tests are successful, the locomotive exhaust filter could be installed on all older yard locomotives and possibly adapted for higher-horsepower engines that haul passenger or freight trains across the country at higher speeds.
"Right now,'' said Iden, "this is one of a kind.''
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