EPA DEQ Model Updated to Include Alternative Fuel Emission Factors

The U.S. EPA has updated the Diesel Emission Quantifier tool to include new emission factors for alternative fuel vehicles including natural gas-powered vehicles. The DEQ website indicates that the changes were made over the summer and that the model now includes inputs from the Argonne National Laboratories GREET model. The change had been sought by NGVAmerica and Clean Cities Coordinators because previous versions of the DEQ tool did not reflect the full benefit of new, cleaner alternative fuel vehicles such as natural gas vehicles equipped with low-NOx and near-zero engines.

The change is a partial victory for alternative fuel advocates but falls short of including the higher in-use emission factors for diesel vehicles that are included in several other government sponsored models such as AFLEET and HDVEC. Using the best and most up-to-date emission factors is important is ensuring that applicants submitting alternative fuel projects for federal or state funding are given full credit for benefits of their deployment of alternative fuel vehicles.

A number of states rely exclusively on the DEQ tool to evaluate DERA or Volkswagen Funding Opportunity. NGVAmerica has successfully argued that states should also allow applications to use the AFLEET or HDVEC tools when submitting project applications. A number of states have been receptive to this argument and now allow the use of these tools. See What’s New on the EPACleanDiesel page.