June 2018

Prior to last month’s Advanced Clean Transportation Expo in Long Beach, Calif., ROUSH CleanTech was synonymous – at least in the school bus industry – with propane autogas fuel injection systems built for the Blue Bird Vision and the Micro Bird G5, as well as comparable CNG and gasoline systems. The alternative energy division of ROUSH Enterprises was still riding the high of last year, when it produced the first and only propane engine in the Class 4 through 7 market to achieve the optional 0.05 grams per brake horsepower per hour level of NOx.

Over the past few years, researchers have found links between diesel-fueled school bus emissions and an increased cancer risk in children. The Carmel Clay School District and others across the state are working to make their school buses safer for their students. Gabe Filipelli, a Department of Earth Sciences professor at IUPUI, says constantly being around diesel-fueled emissions is the equivalent of smoking nine packs of cigarettes a year.

ROUSH CleanTech, maker of alternative fuel systems and a division of Roush Enterprises Inc., Livonia, and Blue Bird Corp., Fort Valley, Ga., a school bus manufacturer, have extended an alternative-fueled school bus partnership through 2025. The contract started in 2012 and has resulted in 1,300 districts operating more than 16,000 propane, compressed natural gas and gasoline-powered school buses.