Texas Railroad Commissioners: Clean-air Propane Forklifts Also Conserve Fuel

AUSTIN — The three Texas Railroad Commissioners announced today that clean-air, propane-fueled forklifts provide not only environmental but also economic benefits in the form of better fuel economy, according to a recently completed study.

Tests ordered by the Commission's Alternative Fuels Research & Education Division showed that individual forklift trucks equipped with computer-controlled propane fuel averaged 13.7 percent better fuel economy than the same forklifts without such controls.

The tests were designed and run by engineers at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio under a grant from the Texas State Energy Conservation Office.

The findings confirm what industry and emissions experts have long thought: that the same electronic controls that reduce forklifts' emissions of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) also save fuel, by holding an engine's air-fuel ratio at or near the ideal level.

About 70 to 80 percent of Texas' estimated 36,000 propane forklifts operate in the 41 counties with air-quality problems. According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, each electronically controlled, catalyst-equipped propane forklift reduces NOx emissions by 0.21 tons per year compared to an unregulated forklift.

The new data will allow the propane industry, environmental officials and states like Texas that operate air-quality incentive programs to document the energy-conservation effects as well as the emissions benefits of replacing or retrofitting older forklifts.

“Warehouse operators, freight lines and other materials handlers no longer have to guess what will happen to their fuel costs if they buy cleaner propane forklifts,” said Railroad Commission Chairman Elizabeth Ames Jones. “Now they know they’ll save money as well as help clean up the air.”

Commissioner Michael L. Williams said the test results make the Railroad Commission’s Forklift Initiative grant program even more attractive. "These grants were already a great investment for the Texas Emissions Reduction Program. The improved fuel economy is an added bonus - helping to stretch our alternative fuel supply and stretch the budgets of participating companies." “The forklift grants we’ve issued so far will reduce NOx in Texas by 450 tons over the life of the new forklifts, at a very favorable cost per ton,” said Commissioner Victor G. Carrillo. “Add about 14 percent better fuel efficiency on top of that, and it is clear that the program is benefiting Texas’ environment and economy.”

The Texas Emissions Reduction Program, created by the Legislature in 2001, is administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. TCEQ has awarded the Railroad Commission $8 million for Forklift Initiative grants since 2004.

For more information about Forklift Initiative grants, call Shoppa's today at  (866) 506-2200.

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