This is the first locomotive that meets 2015's new environmental standards

[Recursion]

http://qz.com/308469/this-is-the-locomotive-that-meets-2015s-new-environmental-standards/

Teams from GE Global Research and GE Transportation spent many years experimenting with new designs and systems to build the Tier 4 Evolution Locomotive. One option was retrofitting a large filter and a 4,000-pound catalytic converter on top of the engine that would use urea to split the nitrogen oxide in diesel exhaust into nitrogen and water. GE engineers declined to pursue this option due to a need for extra maintenance and difficulty in accessing the engine. The design would have also meant US railroads would need to invest at least $1.5 billion in urea distribution infrastructure.

So GE researchers and engineers built a single cylinder engine for testing, collected its exhaust data and used software models to simulate a full-size locomotive. Testing led to a discovery that the temperature inside the cylinder must be kept at an optimum level to reduce nitrogen oxide and particulate matter. And that finding led to the development of an ingenious system that recirculates hot exhaust gas back into the engine, eliminating the requirement to have so-called after-treatment technology. GE is currently testing seven of the new locomotives around the world.

The Evolution Series had its genesis in the quest for cleaner environment. After the US Environmental Protection Agency announced a new set of regulations in 1998, GE began developing a new series of locomotives that would meet the new lower emission level standard, helping reduce carbon footprints. The first Evolution model entered production in 2005, the result of eight years of development and investments of $400 million.

There's some obvious press release language in there, but this is a great system. Rail transport is a crucial part of the US economy, moving 40% of US freight, compared to 10% in all of Europe.

[LiberalArkie]

1. Great, Thanks

[Waldorf]

8. After seeing this just decided to view some locomotives being built on Youtube. Pretty impressive

watching them being built. (Not these particular ones, just modern locomotives).

[FLPanhandle]

2. None of the style of the olden days though

?w=510

[cantbeserious]

3. Cool - Thank You For Sharing

eom

[denbot]

4. I'll bet this will be introduced to the heavy truck market within a decade.

Very good news.

[Brother Buzz]

5. If the technology translates to trucks I hope it can be introduced gradually and not mandated

Independent truckers (sans deep pockets) took it in the shorts a decade ago meeting the clean diesel mandate.

[KT2000]

6. now they need to work on

covers for coal train cars.
Nice looking train BTW.

[Travis_0004]

7. or transport more coal by pipeline

[KT2000]

9. interesting point

My sister lives near a railroad line that used to transports oil. She is strongly in favor of pipelines.
There is a remedy for this - all companies involved in movement of oil - pipeline or rail car - should be trustworthy individuals and there should be constantly present oversight by regulators.

The problem is that it is all about money which means cutting corners, saving money, increasing profits and minimizing expenses. This industry is full of people who resent regulation and many times do not respect it. All one needs to do is look at Texas and see what disasters they have come to accept as just the cost of doing business - to hell with clean air, water, and soil.

Oil could be moved safely but the companies involved will not do it - there will be rail car disasters and pipeline breaches as has already happened in the past.