Purdue Research Helps Truck Drivers Hit the Road with Better Efficiency

Dr. Greg Shaver recently joined on as a Greater Indiana Board Member. As a mechanical engineering professor at Purdue University, Dr. Shaver also serves as director of Purdue’s Ray W. Herrick Laboratories. The research at Herrick Laboratories supports cleaner air quality initiatives through reduction in vehicle emissions. The recent wildfires in Canada have only amplified the concern for air quality across the nation, and urban areas are especially burdened by tailpipe emissions from heavy-duty vehicles that are stuck in traffic. Dr. Shaver’s group is exploring cleaner fuels and more efficient engines.

“Shaver is part of a national push to look into reducing carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and microscopic particle emissions, while also improving the efficiency of diesel engines on the roads. With the help of engineering professors, Boilermakers are now creating strategies to get gas in and out of the engine cylinders. The idea is to create a better way for the fuel to burn cleanly and efficiently. In turn, the research will also lessen tailpipe emissions. ‘We are also looking at new types of fuels we can use, where the fuel itself has a lower carbon footprint and can burn cleaner in an engine,’ Shaver said.”

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