Educating the Next Generation of Technicians on Propane Autogas

The National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium (NAFTC) in February launched its newly developed Propane Autogas Vehicle Technician Training program as a way to grow the propane autogas industry by educating the next generation of alternative fuel automotive technicians.

NAFTC director Bill Davis said the program features a group of training products, which the consortium will make available to automotive instructors nationwide to educate automotive technicians on propane autogas vehicles. The products include a manual with pictures and schematics, a DVD for instructors, and eventually, a website will supplement the materials, but Davis noted the importance of the printed booklet.

“The technician will come away with a comprehensive instructor manual,” Davis said. “As much as we tried to go electronic on a number of things, automotive technicians feel more comfortable if they have their hands around something they can hold on to.”

The project has been in the works for about two years after representatives of the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) met with NAFTC to discuss development of a propane autogas education program for automotive technicians, similar to programs that other energy sources offer.

After determining that the need was great for propane autogas technician training, PERC funded a program to develop the training. NAFTC asked PERC for information that it could include in the training materials, and a PERC task force of propane marketers, original equipment manufacturers, aftermarket professionals, and school bus manufacturers responded with thousands of pages of documents, photos, and diagrams that NAFTC organized into the document.

As part of the project, NAFTC then began training its member instructors, who teach automotive technology at community and technical four-year colleges and universities around the country. Finding a facility to conduct the training for the instructors was an early step, and the consortium looked for a facility run by a company with significant involvement in propane autogas.

A free, three-day training course has also been designed by The National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium (NAFTC) to give automotive service technicians an in-depth look at servicing and maintaining propane-autogas-powered vehicles. The NAFTC launched the course to help fill a need for qualified technicians who can adapt, service and maintain the alternative fuel systems.

Sessions are free but space is limited.

“Blue Bird has a very significant input right now, with the number of vehicles they’re putting out there on the road,” Davis said of the Georgia-based company that manufactures school buses such as the Vision, which runs on propane. Blue Bird provided the space and chassis so the instructors could receive hands-on training on propane systems. The program also helped Blue Bird, which is always on the lookout for qualified technicians, and the school bus company wanted to contribute to attracting them to the propane industry.

“Blue Bird employs quality technicians to service its buses,” noted David Bercik, the company’s director of product marketing. “As Blue Bird sells more and more propane buses to school districts, we’re always looking for more highly qualified, knowledgeable people to service the buses. The NAFTC program will benefit Blue Bird and its dealers that provide the buses throughout North America by increasing the pool of technicians, which will also help the propane industry as a whole,” Bercik said. “You can never have enough trained employees out there to work on these buses, because it is a different skillset than working on a diesel,” he added.

For the initial session of training for the instructors, Blue Bird provided a chassis with a propane system, “so the trainers could look at it without the skin on the bus, just the skeleton. They could see the inner workings of the fuel system.” (See photo below.)

The instructors are from educational institutions such as the University of Northwestern Ohio, Rio Hondo College in California, the New England Institute of Technology, Lansing Community College in Michigan, Alfred State College in New York, Owensboro Community and Technical College in Kentucky, Tyler Junior College in Texas, Blue Ridge Community College in North Carolina, and First Coast Technical College in Florida. Another is Chicago Vocational School, which high school students attend.

After going through the NAFTC training, the instructors will teach participants such as other automotive instructors, students, in-service automotive technicians, and fleet managers on all aspects of propane autogas systems. “We start at the fuel tank and go all the way to the fuel injector,” Davis explained. The course will include instruction in areas such as tanks, how they are mounted, controls, how to defuel a tank, propane systems, ignition, fuel tank installation, supply lines for the fuels, how to turn a liquid fuel into a gaseous fuel, fuel injectors, fuel switching if the vehicle is bi-fuel, electronics, and tank purging.

“Last but not least is fuel dispensing, because one thing you have to cover when you train a tech is not just on maintaining a system that happens to be on that vehicle,” Davis stated. “If a driver has a problem and he can’t get his vehicle to accept the fuel, why not?” The technician should know if the problem involves the fuel supply system or another area.

The materials include an entire chapter on propane autogas safety, covering topics such as codes and standards, personal protective equipment, handling spills, fire prevention, static electricity, how to service a vehicle with a leak, and an entire section on facilities. Davis will soon host Webinars and workshops on equipping facilities to work on propane autogas vehicles.

He stressed that the training materials are “a living, breathing, growing document.” The curriculum, he noted, will be around for a while. It’s not material that will stay the same for years after it’s published. If technology changes, NAFTC will change the curriculum immediately to address the changes.

Along with the curriculum, instructors will have access to a kit containing materials they need to train automotive technicians and others on propane autogas vehicles, such as valves, fuel dispensing items, injectors, and a fuel tank. After completing the training, the trainer will ship the kit back to NAFTC so other instructors can use it. NAFTC is working on an online toolbox with electronic material for the instructors, including photos, diagrams, and videos showing exercises they can go over with students.

Stuart Flatow, vice president of safety and training for PERC, said the automotive instructors were excited about the initial train-the-trainer session and will gain great knowledge through the Propane Autogas Vehicle Technician Training to be passed on to the next generation of alternative fuel automotive technicians.

“Now they can have a really good sense of the fueling system, propane safety, and the benefits of it, and even the folks that have not been that familiar about it are very excited about it. We want them to incorporate this as a course into their standing automotive technician curriculum so we can start breeding the next generation of alternative-fuel technicians, in this case autogas,” Flatow said.

The training will provide additional year-round gallon growth for the propane industry, he added. Propane marketers who are not currently involved in propane autogas might become more interested when they see the gallon growth as a result of the NAFTC program. “The technologies are such that I think it uplifts the entire industry. This country and the world are seeing the high-tech use of the fuel that they sell, and they should be proud of that.” —Daryl Lubinsky