These reports detail the ongoing fleet evaluation of oil bypass filter technologies by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) for the U. S. Department of Energy’s FreedomCAR & Vehicle Technologies Program. Eleven full-size, four-cycle diesel-engine buses used to transport INL employees on various routes have been equipped with oil bypass filter systems from PuraDYN Filter Technologies (8 buses) and Refined Global Solutions (3 buses). Six gasoline-equipped INL Tahoes are also equipped with PuraDYN systems. Because of the reported filtering (down to 0.1 microns) capability of bypass filter systems, the technology is intended to extend oil-drain intervals and reduce engine wear. To validate the extended usability of the oil, an oil analysis regime is used to monitor the presence of necessary additives in the oil, to detect undesirable contaminants and engine wear metals, and to evaluate the fitness of the oil for continued service. Extended engine oil use supports the Department of Energy’s goal of energy security. Testing results for the eleven buses and six Tahoes in the evaluation can be found below. The 17 test vehicles have accumulated over 1,000,000 test miles to date.
- Oil Bypass Filter Technology Evaluation
- Final Report - March 2006 (PDF 1.5MB)
- Eleventh Quarterly Report April - June 2005 (PDF 431kB)
- Tenth Quarterly Report January - March 2005 (PDF 491kB)
- Ninth Quarterly Report October - December 2004 (PDF 655kB)
- Eighth Quarterly Report July - September 2004 (PDF 319kB)
- Seventh Quarterly Report April - June 2004 (PDF 618kB)
- Sixth Quarterly Report January - March 2004 (PDF 540kB)
- Fifth Quarterly Report October - December 2003 (PDF 654kB)
- Fourth Quarterly Report July - Sept 2003 (PDF 412kB)
- Third Quarterly Report April - June 2003 (PDF 651kB)
- Second Quarterly Report January - March 2003 (PDF 482kB)
- First Quarterly Report October - December 2002 (PDF 1.5MB)
- Oil Bypass Filter and Diesel Engine Idling Wear-Rate Evaluations Poster (PDF 240kB)
- PuraDYN Oil Bypass Filtration System Evaluation Test Plan (PDF 723kB)
- Evaluation of Oil Bypass Filter Technology on Heavy and Light Duty Vehicles Presentation for the American Filtration and Separations Society - SLIDES ( PDF 490kB)
- Demonstrated Petroleum Reduction Using Oil Bypass Filter Technology on Heavy and Light Duty Vehicles Presentation - SLIDES (PDF 998kB)
The above documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs (Download Acrobat Reader).