An Environmental Protection Agency grant of nearly $1.1 million will go to add battery-powered air conditioning units to at least 101 long-haul trucks, targeting those operated by KLLM Transport Services and Dufour Petroleum.

The money will be routed through the Mississippi State University Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, mainly to put the units on 6.5 percent of KLLM’s fleet and 8.3 percent for DuFour, which is a unit of Enbridge Energy Partners.

But the EPA said “additional retrofits will be offered to independent truck owners located in Mississippi.” The school said it will install the units on trucks of the two partner fleets, and offer “competitive mini-grants for installation of the idle reduction technology for some independent truckers.”

Although the grant is aimed at trucks operating in Mississippi, the agency also said that, since the two truck fleets operate in other parts of the U.S., the EPA “expects this program to benefit many communities throughout the Southeast and around the country as these fleets travel.”

With the battery-powered air units, drivers can turn off their engines while resting or for loading and unloading stops, and still get air conditioning with no diesel fuel emissions. This project is estimated to save 144,502 gallons of diesel fuel use a year, which will reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 1,608 tons annually along with cuts in nitrogen oxides and particulate matter.

It awarded the grant of $1,083,595 under the agency’s “National Clean Diesel Campaign,” working with the Southeast Diesel Collaborative as well as Mississippi State.

Source: JOC