On most days, the air seems to vibrate at a higher frequency in the labs of West Virginia University’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions. But a little more than a year ago, a handful of the center’s engineers became players in a story that sent shockwaves through the global automotive industry. In 2014, CAFEE contracted with a non-governmental organization to study emissions levels from diesel vehicles in the United States. WVU’s researchers found that two of the three vehicles they tested – both Volkswagens – were emitting up to 35 times the oxides of nitrogen permitted by regulators. Investigations by the California Air Resources Board and the U.S. EPA revealed that the automaker used a “defeat device” to cheat on emissions tests. CAFEE is focused on the road ahead and continues to work at a feverish pace to secure sponsorships, grants and research funding to sustain the work of the center. CAFEE is adding to its capabilities, bringing two new laboratory facilities online in the next few months. Additionally, they are looking at what the future will hold for emissions technology, the research behind it and the testing necessary to ensure that it is successful. With increasingly stringent rules for both gasoline and diesel vehicles in the passenger-car and heavy-duty engine markets, manufacturers will have to innovate. As our panelists will discuss, that’s where CAFEE comes in.
Dan Carder's Bio
Dan Carder is the Director of WVU’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions, a position he has held since 2011. He is responsible for the development and growth of the center, its faculty, staff and students through promotion of the center’s capabilities, expansion of its resources and cultivation of new research collaborations. For more than 20 years, Carder has specialized in the measurement and control of heavy-duty mobile source exhaust emissions and alternative fuels research. In the 1990s, Carder was an integral part of the WVU team that worked with six heavy-duty diesel engine manufacturers on a historic settlement with the United States Environmental Protection Agency to conduct real-world pollution research and upgrade existing engines in order to lower emissions. In 2013, Carder led the WVU research team that conducted on-road testing of diesel emissions from light-duty vehicles in the U.S. and discovered elevated levels of oxides of nitrogen emissions from Volkswagen vehicles.
Dan Carder
Director of Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions
Breakout Session 1: 10:15 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Breakout Session 2: 11:15 a.m.-12:00 p.m.