Boston Business Journal - October 22, 2007

Startup to demonstrate clean diesel fuel filter
Boston Business Journal

GEO2 Technologies Inc., a startup that develops clean diesel particulate filters, has teamed with the local advocacy group Diesel Pollution Solution Coalition and is set to stage a diesel retrofit demonstration on a truck on Monday, the company said.

The demonstration by Woburn, Mass.-based GEO2 Technologies Inc., which will take place at the John Marshall Elementary School in Dorchester, will be the first in a series of rallies being held around Boston in support of "An Act to Protect Public Health and Air Quality from Harmful Diesel Emissions", which is currently before the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The bill's co-sponsor, Senator Jack Hart (D-Boston) will speak at today's event.

A passage in the "Air Quality" act would require all heavy-duty diesel fleets owned, operated or contracted by the state to be retrofitted with diesel particulate filters by 2010, reducing the level of diesel pollution produced in and around Massachusetts' urban communities by vehicles such as garbage trucks, construction equipment and trains.

As part of GEO2's demonstration today, pollution output will be measured on a retrofitted clean-diesel truck, against a traditional diesel-powered vehicle of comparable weight and size.

"The Boston metropolitan area incurs the fifth highest number of premature deaths due to diesel pollution annually, according to the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit in Boston.