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CDCH Development Background

While Federal law requires diesel engine manufacturers to meet increasingly stringent emission standards, older higher-emitting diesel engines in use today may continue to operate for many years.

Fortunately, there are a number of retrofit options that are available to improve air quality by reducing emissions from older diesel engines. The CDCH provides information about these options.

To help serve New York state stakeholders to meet Best Available Technology (BAT) regulations for retrofitting construction equipment, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), in collaboration with others in New York State promoting the use of BAT, sponsored the creation of the CDCH, a web-based database and clearinghouse of options available for reducing emissions of in-use diesel engines.

NYSERDA’s initial focus is for the CDCH to serve organizations within New York State that need to identify BAT retrofit products approved for construction equipment applications within New York. The CDCH was developed to not only serve this need, but also to address national and international interests in adopting pollutant and greenhouse gas reduction and fuel-saving technologies for on-road and other nonroad applications, including: equipment used at marine ports, marine vessels, rail, agriculture, airports, industrial and commercial operations.

Emissions Advantage (EA) was selected by NYSERDA to develop and host the web-based CDCH. EA has significant experience in diesel engine technologies, engine/vehicle emissions, retrofit technologies/products, and extensive relationships with the retrofit user community. Project development support is being provided to EA by GORGES, Inc., for database development assistance, Alliance Technical Services, Inc. and the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM). EA is providing significant cost sharing to design, implement and sustain the CDCH. NESCAUM is also providing cost share to assist in CDCH implementation.

NYSERDA was created as a public benefit corporation in 1975 under Article 8, Title 9 of the New York State Public Authorities Law through the reconstitution of the New York State Atomic and Space Development Authority. Its earliest efforts focused solely on research and development with the goal of reducing the State’s petroleum consumption.

Today, NYSERDA’s aim is to help New York State meet its energy goals: reducing energy consumption, promoting the use of renewable energy sources, and protecting the environment. For additional information, please visit www.nyserda.org.

CDCH Content and Feature

The CDCH has been created by Emissions Advantage to be a primary reference source of relevant, high quality information on clean diesel emission reduction technologies and practices. Its features allow it to serve as a management tool to meet the diverse needs of vehicle/equipment operators, developers, air quality agencies, emission reduction program managers, and policy makers when selecting options and managing programs to meet environmental quality and energy-use goals.

To support these needs, the CDCH contains:

  • Vehicle/equipment/model descriptions
  • Information on manufacturers and suppliers of the wide range of available retrofit products, as well as suggestions for fleet operational and maintenance practices, that can achieve reductions in diesel emissions, greenhouse gases and fuel consumption
  • Summary data from active and completed retrofit projects on the use of various retrofit technologies and their costs
  • Descriptions of retrofit technologies and products that will allow compliance with the EPA regulations for National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engines (RICE-NESHAP)
  • Educational tutorials on diesel engine pollutant emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, fuel consumption issues, air quality issues and the need for emission reductions, as well as effective planning and implementation of emission reduction projects and programs
  • Fact sheets on the wide range of emission reduction and fuel-saving retrofit technologies that are available
  • Retrofit product and project implementation guidance that provides information on selecting appropriate retrofit technologies to suit a particular application and set of operational requirements
  • Agency-specific information for complying with BAT or other emission reduction regulations, or voluntary emission reduction program requirements