Future Truck Committee Information Report 2001-1: Reliability of Alternatively Fueled Heavy Trucks Impact on Future Vehicle Design

This report was prepared to support current and future TMC Future Truck Position Papers on alternative fuels and provide proponents of alternative fuels a measure of the distance they must go to approach diesel engine/fuel reliability. Reliability, in terns of the probability of running so many failure-free miles, is not quantified in any of the reports on alternative fuel usage in heavy trucks. Rather, proxies, such as “uptime,” or utilization as a percent- age of diesel truck miles, or maintenance cost comparisons are used. The reliability of heavy trucks fueled by LNG, CNG, and ethanol was calculated using failure data from a number of alternative fuel demonstration projects spon- sored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and one conducted by a motor carrier as a private venture. The results are compared to diesel truck reliability. Reliability of two liquid natural gas (LNG) refueling facilities was also calculated. This report is not intended to be a complete description of the various alternative fuel projects from which the raw data was taken. The reader is referred to the references for other details (fuel economy, emissions, etc.) of the various projects.

Issued: March 2001