ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fred Weber, Inc., a major highway contractor and aggregate producer located in greater St. Louis has gone “green” protecting both the environment and the Company pocketbook, by beginning to install Combustion Catalyst Systems (CCS) on its fleet of diesel equipment. While the system is designed to reduce pollutants emitted by diesel engines, the Company got an even bigger surprise. “At first we were a little skeptical,” says Ed Moss, maintenance manager for the construction firm. “We tested the device on an engine loading limestone at one of our mines, and it showed a reduction in particulates of 50 percent. What was just as impressive was that it also showed an average fleet wide fuel savings of 15 percent. And, when our mechanics dismantled the engine, which had run for 7,000 hours, the internal parts looked brand new.” “Fuel savings while extending the life of the engine is not a rocket science proposition. After 7,000 hours of run time and saving three gallons per hour is 21,000 gallons of fuel in just one engine,” recalls Moss. Moss believes that the usable life for the engine can be extended by about 5,000 hours or two years. The catalyst system was designed by Phoenix-based technology company Emissions Technology. It is the size of a large cereal box and is installed under the hood, near the diesel engine’s turbocharger. The technology makes the engine combustion cleaner and more efficient by injecting a platinum-based catalyst into the combustion chamber. The concept is the same as taking a catalytic converter, and installing it on the front end of the combustion cycle, rather than on the exhaust. Today, the 75 year old Fred Weber Company runs 11 mines and quarries that are diesel intensive and all could benefit from the CCS. Fred Weber is committed to improving air quality, and Moss intends to install 50 more catalysts systems this year, well on his way to outfitting his fleet of 300 diesel running generators, loaders and dredgers. He plans to double the number of installations next year. According to Troy Bohlke, vice president of marketing/investor relations for Emissions Technology, “The catalyst system wasn’t even designed to save fuel originally,which we discovered as an additional bonus, but rather, it was designed to reduce particulate emissions from diesel engines, particularly in the West, where pollutions controls are more tightly regulated.” According to the American Lung Association, diesel engines produce nearly 20 percent of all nitrogen oxides (NO2) in outdoor air. Nitrogen oxides are a major contributor to ozone production and smog and are thought to be either the cause or the exacerbating agent of a number of respiratory health problems. Because of these health and environmental concerns, a number of states are penning stricter emissions’ control legislation, sending companies scrambling for ways to retrofit old, non-compliant diesel-powered vehicles. Their choices are limited to either purchasing new equipment which is cost prohibitive, or finding less expensive, after market solutions. Fred Alvis, owner of the Mobile Equipment Sales and Services, Inc., which distributes the catalyst system in the Midwest, was the genesis for Moss and Fred Weber, Inc. using the CCS. Alvis did a similar test on a wheel-loader diesel engine similar to the one tested by Moss with similar results.
