Exhaust emissions from two intercity passenger locomotives

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Exhaust emissions from two intercity passenger locomotives

Fritz, S.G.

To enhance the effectiveness of intercity passenger rail service in mitigating exhaust emissions in California, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) included limits on exhaust emissions in its intercity locomotive procurement specifications. Because there were no available exhaust emission test data on which emission reduction goals could be based, Caltrans funded a test program to acquire gaseous and particulate exhaust emissions data, along with smoke opacity data, from two state-of-the-art intercity passenger locomotives. The two passenger locomotives (an EMD F59PH and a GE DASH8-32BWH) were tested at the Association of American Railroads Chicago Technical Center. The EMD locomotive was equipped with a separate Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC) 8V-149 diesel engine used to provide 480 volts AC power for the trailing passenger cars. This DDC engine was also emission tested. These data were used to quantify baseline exhaust emission levels as a challenge to locomotive manufacturers to offer new locomotives with reduced emissions. Data from the two locomotive engines were recorded at standard fuel injection timing and with the fuel injection timing retarded 4 degrees in an effort to reduce NOx emissions. Results of this emissions testing were incorporated into the Caltrans locomotive procurement process by including emission performance requirements in the Caltrans intercity passenger locomotive specification, and therefore in the procurement decision. This paper contains steady-state exhaust emission test results for hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CQ), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), and particulate matter(PM) from the two locomotives. Computed sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions are also given, and are based on diesel fuel consumption and sulfur content. Exhaust smoke opacity is also reported.