Engelhard Emission-Control Technology Cleans up School Buses
22 November 2005
Over one thousand school buses across the United States are being retrofitted with clean-air technology from Engelhard Corporation (NYSE:EC) under the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Buses for Kids Program.
A significant number of the approximately 40 school districts selected for funding under the EPA program have chosen to retrofit their school buses with Engelhard DPX(R) diesel particulate filters. Completion of the retrofits is expected by the end of this year. More than 170 school districts applied for the EPA funds.
Each year, American children spend three billion hours on school buses - 99% of which are diesel. Exhaust from diesel fuel, which powers 90% percent of the 454,000 school buses on the road today, has been shown to cause or exacerbate a host of health problems -- including asthma, lung disease and cancer -- and has been linked to premature death.
Retrofitting conventional diesel school buses with emission-control technology can help reduce a child's exposure to potentially harmful particulates present in the vehicles' exhaust. The EPA program, launched in September 2004, provides funding to school districts and other eligible public entities to purchase and install emission-control equipment on post-1990 diesel school buses. These funds offset the cost of diesel particulate filters as well as the ultra-low sulfur fuel the filters require.
Engelhard's technology was selected for its easy, cost-efficient installation and proven performance in reducing harmful emissions, including particulate matter, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides.
"We are very pleased to participate in an EPA program that recognizes and supports effective and economical technology solutions," said Dr. Bulent Yavuz, Engelhard's manager for heavy-duty diesel, Americas and Asia. "Engelhard diesel particulate filters have proven to be effective in many diesel retrofit programs in the United States as well as in European and Asian cities to help them meet increasingly stringent air-quality standards."
Engelhard's diesel particulate filters first trap and then destroy particulates from the engine using a patented catalytic technology to continuously burn them at normal diesel operating exhaust temperatures. They are able to trap very fine particles, including those below one-tenth of a micron (1/1,000 of a millimeter), which represent most of the particulate matter believed to penetrate deep into the lungs.
A leading supplier of cost-efficient, clean-air technologies, Engelhard has more than 15 years experience in the diesel particulate filter market. The company's technology has been used successfully for serial production of hundreds of thousands of diesel cars and trucks.
Engelhard Corporation is a surface and materials science company that develops technologies to help customers improve their products and processes. A Fortune 500 company, Engelhard is a world-leading provider of technologies for environmental, process, appearance and performance applications. For more information, visit Engelhard on the Internet at www.engelhard.com.
Source: dBusinessNews
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