GreenMan Technologies announced that its American Power Group Inc. subsidiary has been notified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that its first Clean Alternative Fuel Vehicle and Engine Conversion Submission has been approved for the Outside Useful Life Heavy Duty 2004 Caterpillar C-15 engine family.
The submission utilized APG’s latest V5000 Dual Fuel Turbocharged Natural Gas technology, which had to meet specific design, componentry and emissions compliance criteria. GreenMan says this first OUL Heavy Duty Diesel EPA approval provides APG a clear path for additional conversion approval submissions on a wide-array of heavy-duty aftermarket diesel truck engines.
“The magnitude and strategic impact of this initial EPA approval is without a doubt one of the most important events in the company’s history,” says Lyle Jensen, GreenMan’s president and chief executive officer. “Our focus over the next several quarters will be to work with interested fleet owners of the most popular OUL model years so that we can expand the number of approved engine families we can sell.”
Jensen says that with the current approved EPA protocol, the company believes it can accelerate the preparation and submission timeline of subsequent vehicle family submissions. “In addition, during this timeframe, we also intend to file our initial intermediate age vehicle submission, which will be subject to different regulatory requirements and would expand our product offerings to include IUL vehicles.”
Power Systems Research, a global supplier of business information to the engine, power products and components industries, estimates that about 4.6 million medium- and heavy-duty diesel vehicles, representing about 93 percent of all medium to heavy-duty vehicles in service, fit into either the IUL or OUL classifications. “Based on our research, we believe we have identified the top 40 heavy-duty engine families operating on the U.S. roads today, representing nearly 400,000 vehicles and an identified market potential in excess of $3.9 billion,” Jensen says.
