Replacement of Two Ten-Wheel Trucks with Two New Biodiesel Trucks and Two Gas Trucks with Two Hybrid Vehicles

As a result of filing an action plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from motor vehicles, the municipality of Saint-Antonin will replace its two snow removal trucks and two municipal vans. The new trucks will use biodiesel fuel and the vans will be replaced with hybrid vehicles. The municipality wants these replacements to meet the new environmental standards in 2017 and reduce fuel consumption as well as the use of salt and abrasives. Saint-Antonin will be able to quantify the environmental and economic benefits of replacing these vehicles. 

The Genesis II system installed in the new trucks will track travel and start/stop frequency in order to optimize their performance. The log in the current trucks can then be compared with the new trucks’ records to quantify kilometrage and fuel consumption before and after vehicle replacement. Second, opacity tests could be performed in the exhaust systems of the current and new trucks to compare their emissions. The opacimeter is designed to detect smoke and dust concentrations in exhaust emissions. The devise will be calibrated beforehand to reduce the margin of error. To track fuel consumption by the hybrid vehicles, the municipality has a system that monitors the amounts of gas or diesel used per unit. It will therefore always be possible to know exactly how much gas is used by each vehicle. In addition to the project’s energy-related aspects, the new snow removal trucks will reduce the road salt and abrasive used to deice roads by using a GPS system to monitor salt application compared to the number of vehicles on the roads. Chlorine is an easily quantifiable parameter for this purpose. Freshwater samples will be collected after a snow removal operation involving the use of salt before and after the trucks go on the road. Sampling can be done at several locations in the municipality in different streams to reduce measurement uncertainty. Invoices for salt and abrasive purchases, motor oil and spare parts will also be used to calculate savings in terms of tonnage and money. The trucks will reduce energy consumption by 50% and the vans by 45%. The project aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by approximately 42 tonnes of C02 eq./year, in addition to reducing air contaminant emissions by 117.99 kg/year. The municipality also specified the amount of the salt and abrasive reduction, and plans to reduce the amounts of gas and motor oil used. No other municipality in the Rivière-du-Loup RCM currently uses trucks that run on biodiesel, which is renewable and biodegradable. Also, the truck models have been selected on the basis of start-up of a new biomethanization plant that will produce biofuel locally (GMF 10210). (Project description from original funding application)