The Capital Area Transportation Authority (CATA) will soon receive nine new diesel-electric hybrid buses equipped with a cooling fan system the authority helped develop.
Each bus is expected to save 950 gallons of fuel due to the new fan. Based on today’s diesel fuel costs, the savings is projected at $28,000.
But CATA already has 24 buses with the new fans, showing $75,000 savings in fuel 
expenses per year, says Craig Allen, CATA’s director of maintenance.
The new fans are the result of experiments performed with Engineered Machined Products (EMP) of Escanaba.
Called the Mini-Hybrid, it is a drop-in cooling module that replaces a conventional hydraulic-driven cooling system with a bank of eight efficient, controllable electric fans.
Replacing the hydraulic cooling fans with electric units reduces engine loads, which results in improved fuel economy, reduction in ambient noise levels, and lower maintenance costs, says Sandy Draggoo, director of CATA.
As a result of the EMP/CATA-developed technology, New Flyer, a Winnipeg-based major bus manufacturing company, has made the EMP system part of its standard bus production.
Furthermore, EMP Advanced Development LLC was awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Excellence Award for the Mini-Hybrid Thermal System in May in Washington, D.C.
Source: Pat Gilbert, CATA
Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie
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