July 8, 2010 EcoEmissions Solutions, Inc. has concluded a long term fuel testing on a prominent tug boat operation located in the Pacific Northwest.
Western Towboat Company is a family owned business that specializes in container barge services between the Port of Seattle and various ports in Alaska, from Southeast Alaska out to the Aleutian Islands. They also service the Port of Seattle for vessel assist operations as well as specialty projects throughout the country. The company has been in business since 1948 and their fleet consists of 20 active vessels.
A typical mid range twin engine towboat for this fleet can burn over 70 gallons of fuel per engine hour. With fuel costs at $2.40 per gallon, the hourly operating fuel cost on these engines can be over $336 per hour. The Eco CIS System (patented) injects a platinum-based catalyst vapor into the engine via the air stream, creating engine efficiencies that result in fuel reduction while maintaining power, reducing pollution dramatically and extending engine life. The catalyst is then replaced on regular intervals throughout the life of the engine.
The Eco CIS system was tested on one of the ocean going barge tugs for over 2,000 hours and proved to deliver a 6.4% reduction in fuel consumption on the test engine when compared to the control engine. On a per engine basis, this reduction in fuel consumption equaled a savings of $9.21 per hour. With a cost of $3.60 per hour to run the Eco Emission Catalyst Injection System, the net hourly savings per engine was approx $5.61. Each boat averages 5,500 hours of operation per year so the net savings per engine was nearly $31,000 per year, for this vessel with twin engines, the savings would be in excess of $62,000.00 per year. In a 5-year period this would generate a net fuel expense savings of over $310,000.
When you put this over a 20 vessel fleet noting that some of these vessels have higher horsepower rated engines, the annual savings from reduced fuel consumption alone would allow Western Towboat to save well over $1.2 million dollars. The ongoing revenues for EES from this project would be over $650,000.
