zero-emissions

The Society of Automobile Engineers, better known as SAE International, has issued a new challenge to college students studying engineering: build a better, cleaner snowmobile.

The rules for the competition have been recently posted, and the goal is to get better fuel economy. Entries can run on biodiesel, ethanol, or, in the zero-emissions category, on electricity. The snowmobiles will be rated in categories like emissions, noise, and acceleration.The idea is to make internal combustion snowmobiles suitable for use in fragile natural areas, like in national parks. The quieter and cleaner a machine is, the less it will disturb both plant and animal life.

The goal for the zero-emissions category is even more specific: make a snowmobile that won’t skew the research being done at Summit Station in Greenland. Scientists there are working to understand the absorption of atmospheric gases by the ice cap, and any emissions from fossil fuels burned at the site can mess up the results of their measurements.

Can we expect to see any of these in the local Sno-Cat dealership? Probably. The SAE seems to expect that the biodiesel and ethanol versions would be pretty cheap to build for retail sale, and that they’d do pretty well on the showroom floor. Hybrids aren’t allowed in this competition for just that reason — the system is too expensive to be worth it for manufacturers or buyers at this point.