An Emission and Performance Comparison of the Natural Gas Cummins Westport Inc. C-Gas Plus Versus Diesel in Heavy-Duty Trucks

Cummins Westport Inc. (CWI) released for production the latest version of its C8.3G natural gas engine, the C Gas Plus, in July 2001. This engine has increased ratings for horsepower and torque, a full-authority engine controller, wide tolerance to natural gas fuel (the minimum methane number is 65), and improved diagnostics capability. The C Gas Plus also meets the California Air Resources Board optional low-NO_x (2.0 g/bhp-h) emission standard for automotive and urban buses. Two pre-production C Gas Plus engines were operated in a Viking Freight fleet for 12 months as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Fuels Utilization Program. In-use exhaust emissions, fuel economy, and fuel cost were collected and compared with similar 1997 Cummins C8.3 diesel tractors. CWI and the West Virginia University developed an ad-hoc test cycle to simulate the Viking Freight fleet duty cycle from in-service data collected with data loggers. Using the West Virginia University heavy-duty transportable chassis dynamometer and emissions laboratory, the Viking Freight C Gas Plus tractors demonstrated significant reductions in carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, and particulate matter on the Viking Freight test cycle. The natural gas tractors also had an advantage in fuel cost per mile when fueled at the on-site natural gas fueling station.