Cummins Westport Inc., a joint venture of Cummins and Canadian-based Westport Innovations, announced that teams led by Cummins Westport won $778,000 in government funding for two separate U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored projects involving medium and heavy duty natural gas vehicles.

Cummins Westport will share $378,000 of funding for one project with truck maker Paccar, parent company of Peterbilt and Kenworth. For the second project, Cummins Westport will share $400,000 with EmeraChem LLC, a catalyst company based in Knoxville, Tennessee. Both projects are scheduled to be completed by late 2002.
The project with PACCAR is intended to establish a preliminary vehicle design and market-introduction strategies for new medium and heavy-duty trucks with state-of-the-art natural gas engines.
The Cummins Westport-led project with EmeraChem will demonstrate a lean oxides of nitrogen (lean NOx) adsorber technology in a 230-horsepower, 5.9 liter Cummins Westport engine. Adsorber technology uses a catalyst to reduce NOx to harmless nitrogen gas.
The funding is part of a DOE-sponsored program called Next Generation Natural Gas Vehicle Phase 1. Of 15 proposals received, two from Cummins Westport were among seven selected for funding.