PERC installs manager of engine fuel programs, announces promotion

The Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) named Alan McEwan as manager of engine fuel programs at its October meeting in Washington, D.C.

McEwan spent 15 years with Mahle in Detroit, most recently as director of business development for the Mahle Powertrain engineering service division. He has more than 25 years of experience in the automotive industry.

At PERC, McEwan will lead programs that support the development of propane engines for on-road, off-road and stationary applications. He takes over many of the responsibilities held previously by Brian Feehan, who left PERC to become president of the Industrial Truck Association.

In other staffing moves, Gregg Walker, formerly editorial and publications manager at PERC, was promoted to director of communications. He has been with PERC since 2008.

Tracy Burleson resigned from PERC to become director of communications with the American Gas Association. She spent more than nine years with the council, most recently as director of residential programs.

The council also approved the following funding requests, with the amount and principal contractor:

Agriculture
■ $650,000 to Osborn & Barr Communications, Nexight and PERC for the Propane FEED program, which will demonstrate many new agriculture technologies hitting the market in the next year. The program will help acquire valuable data on the performance of the new technologies.
■ $251,000 to Behlen Manufacturing Co. for the commercialization of AFI’s four-row banded/full flamer, a versatile tool with proven success that will provide excellent weed control without any crop yield reduction in agronomic crops, according to PERC. The project is co-funded by partners in the amount of $417,000.

Safety and training
■ $263,300 to Logica3 for a comprehensive and flexible propane task-specific training program for crane operators that complies with new OSHA standards in a DVD/CD formatted package.
■ $237,500 to J.J. Keller & Associates Inc. to update the CETP certification transport operator training to reflect current codes and standards. The project will fund development of a combination of DVD, workbook and instructor guides with instructor slide presentation.
■ $138,130 to Dashe & Thomson to convert 4.1 and 4.2 e-learning programs to SCORM compliant framework. SCORM is an industry technical standard for e-learning interoperability.

Industry programs
There were 59 state rebate requests approved since the July council meeting report. Of the programs awarded, 13 programs included requests for Partnership with States funds. The total amount of state rebate funds awarded was just over $1 million, with an additional $331,747 awarded in Partnership with States funds.

The council will next meet on Dec. 8-9 in Houston.