PuriNOx

[the_good_fellow]

got this article in local newspaper. Have anyone heard of this PuriNOx
What modification/cost would be....what do you think?

New fleet fuel eyed by officials
Montgomery County seeking to avoid TNRCC-mandated pollution regulations
By HARVEY RICE
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

CONROE -- Montgomery County commissioners looked at a new diesel fuel technology Monday that they said could help the county avoid pollution regulations they believe are unfairly harsh.

Montgomery is one of eight counties in the Houston area under state mandate to reduce ozone pollution to meet Environmental Protection Agency clean-air requirements by 2007.

Officials hope that if government and private fleets in the county can be persuaded to use PuriNOx, a milky white combination of diesel fuel and water, the county can be exempted from one of the most onerous of the regulations -- tailpipe emissions testing.

In an unsuccessful appeal earlier this year to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, County Attorney David Walker argued that emissions testing would cost Montgomery County residents $5.05 million annually and lead to "lines of automobiles waiting to be tested that might rival the gasoline shortage lines experienced in the late 1970s."

Representatives from Lubrizol Corp., makers of PuriNOx, and its distributor, JAM Distributing Co., told commissioners and transportation directors from the county's six school districts that PuriNOx could be used without modifying engines.

A chemical surrounds water droplets in a shell, allowing the diesel to burn cooler with less nitrogen oxide -- a main component of ozone -- and less particulate pollution, said Andre Serrano, worldwide commercial manager for Lubrizol.

The company says the fuel, which is 20 percent water, reduces nitrogen oxides up to 30 percent and particulates up to 50 percent. The TNRCC calculates a minimum reduction in nitrogen oxides of 19 percent and a 54 percent reduction in particulates, Serrano said.

JAM Distributing saleswoman Kim Olive said PuriNOx costs about 15 cents more per gallon than diesel, but the additional cost can be offset with federal subsidies.

Walker said he asked commissioners to hear the presentation after being told by the TNRCC that the county could avoid air-quality rules by coming up with alternatives to the plan.

He said the county would have to persuade enough school districts and private fleets to switch to PuriNOx to reduce 3.7 tons of pollutants per day. He said he didn't know how many vehicles would need to switch to achieve the reduction, but said it would require a large participation by privately owned diesel fleets.

County Judge Alan B. Sadler said the county and school districts would probably switch to PuriNOx if they could be assured the TNRCC would drop the emissions testing requirement.

"The question really ought to be, `Will the TNRCC accept that as an alternative?' " Sadler said.

Commissioner Ed Chance said he was impressed by Monday's presentation but needed more information before making a decision.

"I think it's a good idea," Chance said. "I think the county has to take the lead in it because we are the lead government agency with the TNRCC."

Mike Patterson, transportation director for the Conroe school district, the largest district in the county, said more than 60 of the district's 380 school buses could not use PuriNOx without an expensive conversion.

"I know our district would like to do things to help the county, but at what expense?" Patterson said.

He also worried federal subsidies could dry up, leaving the district to absorb the extra 15 cent per gallon cost.