An allocation of $187 million by the federal government for new energy projects will benefitlocations in Michigan and Indiana almost exclusively.

The money, announced Monday, will go to nine projects. Only one is outside the two Midwest industrial states.

Money for one of the projects was awarded to Robert Bosch, which has a manufacturing plant in Anderson, but the Bosch plant in Farmington Hills, Mich., was named as the recipient.

The locations are the primary recipients of the money but others within the companies and outside also will benefit, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The $12 million Bosch project is to build a demonstration of a turbo-charged engine that runs on regular gas but is ignited like a diesel engine, attempting to realize 30 percent fuel economy improvements.

The three largest projects, averaging $38 million each and awarded to Cummins Inc., Daimler Trucks and Navistar Inc., are for what the government terms supertrucks, which would have cleaner diesel engines, put otherwise wasted heat to use and use fuel cells to power the semi-trucks while idling.

The rest of the projects, and the Bosch one, are for passenger vehicle engine improvements.

Ford, General Motors and Chrysler all were awarded small-vehicle projects, Delphi Automotive Systems, Bosch and a second Cummins project round out the list of those to be funded.

All of the projects are expected to show results by 2015, with the goals of 50 percent more efficient long-haul freight trucks for the largest projects and of passenger vehicle fuel economy improvements of 25 to 40 percent for the rest.

The nine projects are expected to create 500 or more jobs in the research phase and as many as 6,000 jobs once the technology makes it to factory lines. The money for the projects comes from stimulus funds and private sources.

Story by Mike Ellis