Question about Amtrak locomotive emission strategy

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Yes they are cleaner, they tested renewable diesel impacts on the Tier 4 in 2022 as well. Took a minute to find the public release.
https://www.cummins.com/news/releas...gine-proven-fully-compatible-renewable-diesel
They use less fuel and oil too. That's as important as "renewable" since unless something's changed the fuel is B20, which is 80% to 94% diesel. Brightline buys that blend from Florida Power & Light, which calls it EarthEra. The B20 standard is described here by the US Dept. of Energy: Alternative Fuels Data Center: Biodiesel Blends. There are other distinctions, like sulfur.
 
Is Amtrak transitioning to cleaner burning locomotives?

Are the Chargers part of the plan? Clean locomotives would be a great way to promote rail travel.
yes. The chargers are meeting T4 vs T0 or T0+ like the P42. the F59phi are also gone which were T0 although they had an easy path to T3.
They use less fuel and oil too. That's as important as "renewable" since unless something's changed the fuel is B20, which is 80% to 94% diesel. Brightline buys that blend from Florida Power & Light, which calls it EarthEra. The B20 standard is described here by the US Dept. of Energy: Alternative Fuels Data Center: Biodiesel Blends. There are other distinctions, like sulfur.
This is not blended diesel with renewable but pure renewable. B20 has been cleared for a long time
 
In general, I’m not sure promoting clean locomotives is somehow better framing rail travel as cleaner.
At least more so than it already is.

The general public is well aware that trains are cleaner - the ones who care about that already take the train if they are so able, albeit probably very little. The ones who don’t care about clean travel would be better off convinced through a different reason.
 
yes. The chargers are meeting T4 vs T0 or T0+ like the P42. the F59phi are also gone which were T0 although they had an easy path to T3.

This is not blended diesel with renewable but pure renewable. B20 has been cleared for a long time
I looked up biodiesel (FAME) vs. renewable diesel (HVO). Biodiesel has percentage blends, B5, B20, B100. Renewable diesel is 100% vegetable, made with a different process, and more like conventional diesel. Sometimes it's called RD, but not B100, as far as I can tell.

Brightline Florida only mentions biodiesel. It has said it uses FPL's EarthEra, which is B20 (up to 20%).

Amtrak only talks about renewable diesel in its planning, and since October 2023 the Pacific Surfliner runs on it.

Siemens is spare about mentioning alternative fuels in its brochures.

Cummins, the supplier of the Charger's QSK95 engine, mentions nothing about alternative fuels in its half dozen brochures, except a standalone brochure on HVO, how great it is and how it compares with FAME. Cummins must test with B20 I gather, but only says that HVO is the renewable diesel it tests with, and that fuel consumption is 5% higher than with conventional diesel. HVO is "produced by processing waste lipids, such as vegetable oils, tallow or used cooking oils." Perhaps the Surfliner is using an HVO blend, which is one use of HVO. Hard to imagine that much waste vegetable oil is available. Hereabouts it's valued as animal feed, and collected in trucks from waste oil dumpsters at restaurants, which are probited from clogging up the sewers, I think. Anway, it's a favorite place for stray cats.

The Dept. of Energy and Clean Fuels Alliance both say the same thing about biodiesel, that B5 is always fine to use, B20 is good on 80% of new equipment, and B100 is less commonly supported.

How all this compares with 10% ethanol in gasoline (E10) is hard to tell. I'd read at some time that ethanol gasoline is made from corn that would otherwise not be grown, or sold for food or feed. That's aside from the various technical issues: 2-stroke engines, lower energy, etc. One chain here sells E15, as a new way to sell cheap, as well as some flex fuel E85. How these things are less expensive than E10 has been the complaint about fuel vs. food. I guess everybody knows that. Ethanol-free is always a hefty markup, and seems to come either in low or high octane, depending on where you get it.

Cummins has a lot of pages on hydrogen fuel cells in one of its brochures.
 
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