Johnson County, KS, Bus Fleet Switches to Ethanol-Diesel

17 March 2005

The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority is phasing in the use of O₂Diesel’s ethanol-diesel blend in the 75-bus fleet serving Johnson County, KS, which falls within the authority’s purview.

Phase one of the implementation, beginning immediately, involves a trial with 11 Johnson County buses, and is expected to last approximately three months before the commencement of phase two, which would see the balance of the Johnson County fleet switch.

The Johnson County announcement follows after a similar move by the StarTran system in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Earlier post.)

The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority is an interstate agency serving a seven-county area in Missouri and Kansas surrounding Kansas City, Mo.

O₂Diesel uses 7.7% ethanol, with up to 1% proprietary additive and a cetane improver. Cetane is a measure of a fuel’s ignition delay—the period between the start of injection and start of combustion of the fuel. Higher cetane fuels will have shorter ignition delay periods than lower cetane fuels, and shorter delay is better.

In tests against conventional diesel, O₂Diesel:

• Reduced CO emissions up to 26%

• Reduced NO_x emissions up to 5%

• Reduced PM up to 40%