Wanted: Zero-emission snowmachine

March 15, 2007

Courtesy of  Far North Science
By Doug O'Harra
Thousands of Alaskans drive snowmachines for transportation, sport and pure fun. Despite any northern mythology and nostalgia about sled dogs, snowmobiles long ago replaced mushing as the most practical method for hauling gear and people through the Bush in winter. Anywhere in the Cryosphere, the snow vehicles tow cargo, connect villages. They're used by Natives on winter subsistence hunts. They supply research camps across Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska's North Slope.

Case in point: When the seven-man BarrenLands Traverse leaves March 15 on a 1,800-mile expedition between Fairbanks and Baker Lake in the Canadian Arctic, they will drive snowmachines and tow sleds.

But snowmachines can be messy polluters that generate noxious fumes and pump carbon into the atmosphere. They're fingernail-across-the-blackboard noisy- the nasal whine of snowmobile carries in the frigid night air like some monstrous mosquito under load.

No one, not even avid snowmobilers, enjoy the racket.

A two-stroke snowmachine pounding through the moguls produces 60 pounds of carbon per hour - about the same amount as a pickup truck driven for 50 miles.

But switch to a four-stroke snowmachine, and emissions get sliced by almost half. It's like converting from a full-size pickup to a snazzy new hybrid, according to the Alaska Carbon Calculator.

Why not go further? Can snowmachines be totally clean? In a world where humans have pushed the amount of atmospheric greenhouse gas CO2 to levels unseen in 650,000 years, any innovation could make a difference.

From March 19 to March 24, 13 American and two Canadian teams of engineering students will give it a shot as they compete in the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge at the Keweenaw Research Center in Houghton, Mich.

The goal? Modify or redesign a stock snowmobile so that it cuts emissions and dampens noise without sacrificing speed, power and performance.

In 2006, an engineering team from the University of Wisconsin at Madison won with a four-stroke Polaris that produced the lowest emissions and yet was competitive enough in all the other events.

"We tried to do well in everything, instead of concentrating on one or two things," said team captain Gary Diehl in a Michigan Tech release.

This year, four of the teams have been supported with a $10,000 grant from VECO Polar Resources, the logistics arm of the National Science Foundation.

Making the machines more environmentally friendly is both practical and in keeping with the foundation's basic mission.

"NSF's mandate as a federal agency is to support integration of science and engineering and education," noted Renee Crain, who coordinates Arctic logistics for NSF's Office of Polar Programs. "We also take very seriously our stewardship of the environment where our grantees conduct research. Investing in this competition helps NSF achieve our goals in engineering, education and environmental stewardship."

NSF operates several research stations in remote, pristine environments, including three stations and numerous field camps in Antarctica and a research station on the summit of Greenland's ice cap. Cleaner snowmobiles may benefit science in these places, where locally produced snowmobile emissions can interfere with data from instruments sampling global atmospheric constituents, global transport of soot, and other highly sensitive measurements.

As a result, NSF has been working on several fronts to make operations more efficient and clean at these research outposts. At Summit Station in Greenland, for example, long-range plans include an incremental increase in renewable and alternative energy systems, including an oxygenated fuels program to reduce emissions, wind-power generation systems now in development, and an electric vehicle program. Results from the Clean Snowmobile Challenge may be incorporated into the plan.

Contest winners will travel this summer to Summit Station, courtesy of the NSF, to provide a real-world test of the technology. Renewable energy manager Tracy Dahl from VECO will participate in judging the contest and escort the winning teams to Greenland.

At Summit Station they will spend several days in one of the planet's most demanding environments, testing their snowmobiles in field conditions. They also will meet with world-class scientists to discuss research on such topics as global climate change.

"It will be exciting to take these young engineers to a place as unusual as the Greenland ice cap. It is a great opportunity for them to participate first-hand in supporting globally important research, and the experience can spark a passion for knowledge that will last a lifetime," said Dahl.