EPA Develops Protocol To Verify Diesel Emission Reductions

March 2002

The Environmental Protection Agency, through the Office of Research and Development, has instituted the Environmental Technology Verification Program to verify the performance of innovative and improved technologies that address emission reductions.

EPA created the ETV Program to substantially accelerate the entrance of new and improved environmental technologies into the domestic and international marketplaces. It is a voluntary, non-regulatory program. Its goal is to verify the environmental performance characteristics of commercial-ready technologies through the evaluation of objective and quality-assured data so that potential purchasers and permitters are provided with an independent and credible assessment of what they are buying and permitting.

The ETV Program does not conduct technology research or development. ETV test results are always publicly available and the applicants are strongly encouraged to ensure, prior to beginning an ETV test, they are satisfied with the performance of their technologies. Within the ETV Program, this state of development is characterized as "commercial-ready" and the ETV test is conducted on production units or prototypes having the major characteristics of commercial units.

The provision of high-quality performance data on fully-developed commercial technology encourages more rapid implementation of those technologies and consequent protection of the environment with better and less expensive approaches. The ETV Program is conducted by six ETV centers that span the breadth of environmental technologies.

EPA's partner in the Air Pollution Control Technology Verification Center is RTI, a non-profit contract research organization with headquarters in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The APCTVC verified the performance of commercial-ready technologies used to control air pollutant emissions. The emphasis of the APCTVC is currently on technologies for controlling particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and hazardous air pollutants from both mobile and stationary sources.

The activities of the APCTVC are conducted with the assistance of stakeholders from various interested parties. Overall the Stakeholders Advisory Committee provides APCTVC guidance while the detailed development of individual technology ETV protocols is conducted with input from technical panels focused on each technology area.

The APCTVC develops generic verification protocols and specific test/quality assurance plans, conducts independent testing of technologies and prepares ETV test reports and statements for broad dissemination. Testing costs are ultimately borne by the technology applicants, although initial tests within a given technology area may be partially supported with government funds.

For more information on this program, log onto the program's Web site.

Published: March 20, 2002