Many people griped about traffic delays last summer when Lindy Paving repaved the Parkway West. But more was happening on the parkway than met their eyes.
Although it had no bearing on the project timetable, the West Mifflin company was experimenting with a new-age oil additive to determine whether it could add longevity to its paving equipment.
A secondary goal was to confirm claims of the additive's manufacturer, American Clean Energy Systems Inc., of Volant, Lawrence County, that its fuel and oil additives can help reduce American dependency on foreign oil.
Lindy -- part of P.J. Dick, Trumbull, Lindy -- one of the nation's top 100 general contractors and construction managers, found that the ACES III oil additive significantly lowered temperatures in its paver's hydraulic system. What that means is significantly less wear on the hydraulic components.
Usually, the hydraulic system runs at 157 degrees. With ACES III added to the oil, the equipment ran for three weeks in summer heat at 134 degrees, said Bob Decker, equipment manager for P.J. Dick, Trumbull, Lindy.
"That's a 14 percent reduction [in temperature]," he said. "It helps extend the life of the equipment because temperature is our worst enemy. There is a cost of putting it in, but the benefits outweigh the cost."
But the experiment didn't end there. Trumbull Corp. also tested ACES II, a diesel fuel additive that, according to ACES founder and President Jay Hill, increases fuel efficiency by 20 percent, significantly reduces harmful emissions and extends engine life.
Field tests under way
Trumbull used the additive in a diesel-powered CAT dozer during a road construction project in Moorefield, W.Va., and Decker said the numbers proved Hill's claim.
"Without the additive, the dozer averaged 13.48 gallons an hour," he said. "Once we put ACES in, it ran at 10.85 gallons an hour."
The savings of 2.63 gallons an hour means a 19.5 percent reduction in fuel use. "That's very efficient when you drop fuel consumption that much using an additive," Decker said.
If Trumbull Corp. uses 1.5 million gallons of diesel fuel a year, it would use 292,000 fewer gallons with ACES II. At $1.50 a gallon for diesel, the company could save $438,000, Decker said.
The results of field tests that P.J. Dick, Trumbull, Lindy and other Pennsylvania companies are doing could mark an important step for ACES, which plans to build a headquarters and plant next year in Starpointe, the new industrial and business park in Hanover, Washington County. Hill said he hoped to employ as many as 1,200 people in Washington County within 10 years.
His optimism is based on products he and others say increase fuel efficiency, extend engine life and significantly reduce harmful emissions. He's traveling worldwide to promote his products and prove his claims.
If ACES additives were used nationwide in construction equipment, buses, trucks, trains, freighters and tugboats, companies would save millions in fuel costs and extend the life of equipment. "We are the company that can completely reduce the country's dependency on foreign oil," Hill said.
Other companies testing ACES additives include A.J. Myers & Sons Bus Co. Inc. in Export; Mashuda Corp. in Cranberry; TJS Coal Co. in Shelocta, Indiana County; New Castle Transit Authority in Lawrence County; and Onyx Greentree Landfill in Kersey, Elk County.
Officials with several companies said they hadn't used ACES products long enough to comment, but early results show promise.
Rob Mellon, of Mashuda, said the company would know next month, when it will have had more time to evaluate the additives' effects.
Onyx, another one of the first companies to experiment with ACES II and III in its landfill dozers and equipment, has more convincing results.
Rudy Pollino, Onyx site manager, said his company was saving 15 percent on fuel with ACES II and has extended engine operation between oil changes from 200 to 500 hours with ACES III.
"We saved $73,000 last year [in fuel], and we normally rebuilt motors every 10,000 hours. But we have one piece of equipment we've been running for 17,000 hours [without having to rebuild]," he said.
Inspectors with the state Department of Environmental Protection at the landfill also have noticed. Company equipment, which used to spew black smoke, has quit smoking, he said.
OK, prove it
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory, the South Park facility working with Hill, has provided Penn State a grant to do comprehensive testing of ACES products to determine if they work and, if so, how.
Hill said the key ingredient in the fuel additives was an oxygen activator that makes the fuel burn more efficiently.
By maximizing combustion, more of the fuel is burned, reducing pollutants, particularly nitric oxide, which consist largely of unburned fuel. The additives also include a polymer that leaves a lubricating residue inside the engine after combustion. The result is less engine wear.
Those features will prove particularly important in 2006, when the Clean Air Act mandates a 50 percent reduction in nitric oxide emissions. Nitric oxide is the pollutant that creates smog, but it also is a natural engine lubricant. So its removal will increase engine wear significantly, said Hill and others familiar with the regulation's impact.
Andre Boehman, Penn State associate professor of fuel science, said product testing just got under way and he expected no preliminary results for two to three months.
"We will help ACES figure out how the additive works, and we'll answer other fundamental questions," Boehman said, providing this warning: "I'm always skeptical with field data and anecdotal information. There are a lot of people out there with things that aren't real."
If ACES products lubricate engines and improve combustion, his study will try to figure out why, he said.
But Robert James, DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory partnership development manager, said preliminary test results from Penn State had been satisfactory with no downside.
"This is how a national laboratory works with local folks to contribute to energy savings," he said of his partnership with Hill and Penn State. "So far, the results are positive from our standpoint.
"Any time you have a product like this, the more credible participants you have involved, the more credibility it gives to what you are doing, and the more likely it is to gain acceptance," James said.
The joys of soy
While offering additives for oil, diesel and gasoline, Hill's company also is using ACES II to promote the reduction of American dependence on foreign oil on other fronts.
There's a push under way to improve fuels made from soybeans and other renewable energy sources, but these fuels don't measure up in quality to oil-based fuels.
But, Hill said, biodiesel fuel made from domestically grown soybeans can be transformed into affordable quality fuel by adding ACES II, which also upgrades engine fuels made from coal.
Noting the decline of the family farm in Pennsylvania, Hill said his plans would need 2 million acres of soybeans to produce biodiesel fuel in eight Pennsylvania plants he plans to build.
He also hopes to use coal-waste piles to fuel the plants. His project would create 24,000 agricultural jobs.
His fuel plants would produce ACES-spiked biodiesel fuel to be sold in company service stations along interstates 70 and 80. He said he'd sell every drop.
Pennsylvania's U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum said they supported Hill's efforts, and Specter said he was working to land funding to help build biodiesel plants in Pennsylvania.
"This is the last hope for American agriculture to make a profit on the family farm," Hill said.
He has the same hope for coal-based fuels.
"My company's No. 1 goal is to make a fuel supply that runs on a coal derivative," Hill said. "There are hundreds of years of coal available to us."
By turning Pennsylvania into a major producer of renewable biodiesel fuel, the cycle would come full circle. Pennsylvania, home of the world's first oil well in Venango County south of Titusville, could reclaim its importance in energy production, he said.
First Published: January 5, 2005, 5:00 a.m.
