Tech firm saves Texas anti-pollution initiative

Diesel fuel additive reduces ozone and costs

By Kevin Carmody
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, November 27, 2004

The Environmental Protection Agency's former Southwest regional chief, Gregg Cooke, had heard the spiel dozens of times: An upstart company in search of investor dollars has just discovered a miraculous solution to the nation's most pressing pollution problem.

And, the pitch always goes, the struggling inventor just needs a little help, maybe an endorsement, to save the planet.

But, be it a reputed fix for dirty air or toxic Superfund sites, the result had always been the same: Cooke, now in private legal practice in Dallas, would ask for independent scientific testing to confirm the claims. And he'd never again hear from the inventor.

But Cooke's take-it-to-the-bank rule failed a few months ago. The consequence might translate into less-dangerous ozone pollution levels for residents of Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and several smaller Texas cities -- years sooner than recently predicted.

The young California-based technology company Oryxe Energy International Inc., claiming its simple fuel additive could significantly cut the lung-scarring ozone pollution from diesel trucks, answered Cooke's standard challenge by winning a Texas research grant this summer.

And the results of that research at a nationally renowned West Virginia University lab, recently validated by initially skeptical regulators at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, mean that Texas likely will be the first state besides California in which ultra-low-polluting diesel fuel can be widely sold next year.

"If it sounds too good to be true, my experience is that it's just about always too good to be true," Cooke said. "In all my years, as a regulator and lawyer, I've never seen such a claim borne out so convincingly and with as much potential for significant public health benefits."

And after seeing the results, Cooke agreed to assist Oryxe in dealings with state regulators.

Oryxe's fuel additive, the study showed, will not only mean an extra 6 percent cut in diesel truck and bus emissions of ozone-producing nitrogen oxides, but also a 24 percent drop in toxic vapors such as benzene and 10 percent less greenhouse-gas promoting carbon monoxide.

Six percent might not sound like a lot, but it should provide an extra cushion for the Austin area's just-approved plan to cut ozone back to levels that meet federal health standards, said Shalene Walker, Travis County's air pollution program director. The county is encouraging refiners to pursue a state pollution control grant to provide Oryxe-treated fuel for city, county and school vehicles at perhaps a penny per gallon more than regular diesel.

Ozone forms on warm, sunny days when nitrogen oxides released by vehicle engines, boilers and power plants react in the atmosphere with volatile organic chemicals such as gasoline vapors and cleaning solvents. In most of Texas, including Austin, cutting nitrogen oxide emissions is key to limiting ozone formation, state and federal scientists say.

The importance of reducing ozone pollution in Texas cities was reinforced last week with the publication of a Yale University study documenting that death rates increased significantly in dozens of large American cities for a full week following periods of elevated ozone.

Austin's excess death rate was 35th highest among the 95 cities studied, and worse than those for many larger cities including Boston, Atlanta, Miami and New Orleans, according to the report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dallas ranked fifth worst, and Houston 17th. The biggest surprise in the study, scientists said, was that some of the excess deaths followed ozone readings at or just below the federal ozone standard that Austin air violates several times a year.

However, just months ago, it looked as though the state mandate to provide diesel fuel cleaner than federal standards might be rolled back because of a lack of refining capacity and difficulties in shipping such boutique fuels through pipelines without them being mixed with other fuels and rendered ineffective.

Effective and safe?

Oryxe's additive, which helps diesel burn more completely and therefore reduces unwanted by-product vapors, unexpectedly changed the equation. Instead of needing new refining equipment, oil companies can move the diesel through normal pipelines and have Oryxe's product added at the distribution terminals in major cities.

But it had to work, too.

"Honestly, we were very skeptical that an additive, especially one that doesn't harm engine efficiency or output, could accomplish this level of emissions reductions," said Greg Thompson, an engineering professor and director of West Virginia University's Engine and Emissions Research Laboratory in Morgantown. "It looks like the proverbial silver bullet."

Also key, Thompson said, "it doesn't appear there is anything in there that is toxic," in marked contrast to the gasoline fuel additive MTBE.

The EPA and many states turned to MTBE as a way of reducing air pollution from gasoline-powered passenger vehicles in the 1990s. But the unintended consequence was wide distribution of a toxic chemical that easily seeps into (and has since contaminated) municipal groundwater supplies in dozens of states.

Unlike MTBE, lab data show that Oryxe's additive is low enough on the toxicity scale that it doesn't need special handling even when it's in pure liquid form, said Cooke, who served as the EPA's head of the five-state region under presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. Credited with engineering the new clear air plans for Dallas and Houston, Cooke left the post in 2002.

Perfect timing

The California company's arrival in Texas this spring, after limited success thus far in working with California regulators, came as the Texas fuel marketers and manufacturers were mounting a revolt against the state's mandate for the ultra-low emission diesel.

The EPA is requiring refiners during the next several years to start providing a cleaner burning fuel called low-sulphur diesel in the nation's ozone polluted regions. But, prompted by the severe levels of lung-damaging ozone still plaguing Houston and Dallas, Texas environmental commissioners had mandated that refiners make an even cleaner fuel, called ultra-low emission diesel, years sooner. It had to be available in 110 counties, including some in Central Texas, by April 1, the start of the 2005 ozone season. The deadline has since been extended to October, to partly address refiners' concerns.

Lynton Allred, executive vice president of the Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association warned in late June that, because only one Texas refiner had agreed to produce the ultra-low emission diesel, he saw fuel shortages and the potential disruption of commerce across the state.

Refinery industry representatives attending the same meeting said they felt that the added special shipping costs and the capital investment for equipment needed to produce the cleaner diesel were too high, potentially boosting pump prices by as much as $1 per gallon. Only the Valero Corp. refinery near San Antonio broke ranks and committed to making the cleaner fuel.

About the same time, Oryxe won the grant from the environmental commission to test the additive. Meanwhile, California refiners are spending up to $10 billion on refining equipment and processes to produce the ultra-low emission diesel, Oryxe President Kevin McGlensey said.

"The thing that worked for us in Texas was that the rules here, as opposed to California, allowed for alternatives to producing low emission diesel at refineries," McGlensey said. " Texas officials were willing to work with technology companies to find a solution when the refiners, except Valero, said it was impossible. Now those other refiners are calling us."

kcarmody@statesman.com; 912-2569