The award is distributed over three agreements that cover work begun last winter by ICRC, as well as ongoing projects expected to continue for about two years.

These FTA agreements fund the evaluation of the Fischer-Tropsch fuel in transit buses and other diesel vehicles in several locations in the United States. The demonstrations ICRC will be conducting include evaluations of fuel economy, compilation of emission data, and studies of the fuel’s effects on a variety of diesel engines.

Several projects being conducted under the agreements are:

• In Alaska, ICRC is working with the University of Alaska Fairbanks to test the use of arctic grade ultra-clean diesel fuel at low temperatures.

• In Oklahoma, ICRC is working with Tulsa Transit to operate a new transit bus solely with ultra-clean fuel. The long-term objective for the study is to run the bus with ultra-clean fuel for the duration of its service life up to overhaul, approximately six to seven years, if continuing funding can be obtained.

• In Alabama, ICRC is testing ultra-clean fuel in one of six heavily loaded trucks operated at the National Center for Asphalt Technology. ICRC is conducting tests to compare the clean diesel fuel with conventional fuel in such areas as fuel economy and engine-oil degradation.

Syntroleum uses a compact process to convert natural gas or synthesis gas resulting from gasification of a variety of resources, into a synthetic crude or paraffin wax which is then processed into ultra-clean fuels and chemicals. (Earlier post.)