clean fuel
clean fuel
No Sulphur, No Lead
We tend to accept 0.15gm/ltr lead in petrol as low lead petrol and 0.05g/ltr as unleaded fuel. We need to go to 0.013g/ltr as a transitional step immediately and to 0.0013g/ltr in 4 years. At that level, lead would be almost untraceable in petrol and consequently in the human body.
Particle emissions are directly related to sulphur.In India, sulphur in diesel has to come down from 0.25% to 0.05% by weight - elsewhere it is going to 0.02%. Sulphur in petrol may be brought down from 0.2 to 0.1 by next year, but we need to catch up with the world by taking it to 0.01 as a transtitional step and to 0.005 by 2004.
Higher Octane, Higher Cetane
Higher compression engine gives lower pollution and require the octane to go up from the present 89 to 91. Similarly, diesel cetane needs to go up from 45 to 48 at first and to 53.
Take Benzene down
Benzene of 3-5 % in petrol is as bad as particulates in diesel. It has to be brought down to less than 1%.
Distillation properties
Petrol quality should improve from 85 to 90 % distillation at 180. Diesel needs to be improved from 90% at 365 to 95% at 370.
Additives
These make fuels cleaner and remove the impurities.
The first submission from Indian industry to the SC was that tougher norms could not be met without improved fuels. But when they saw that such a rigid stand would only result in a ban on diesel vehicles, they decided to rely on engine technologies to meet Euro norms.
Ad hoc solutions like increasing the thickness of the coating in catalytic converters were thought of. But improving engines alone without improving fuels would not solve the problem. In fact, it will be far more expensive, life of the converters will reduce and sulphur in the exhausts will continue to be higher.
What next?
No Sulphur, No Lead
We tend to accept 0.15gm/ltr lead in petrol as low lead petrol and 0.05g/ltr as unleaded fuel. We need to go to 0.013g/ltr as a transitional step immediately and to 0.0013g/ltr in 4 years. At that level, lead would be almost untraceable in petrol and consequently in the human body.Particle emissions are directly related to sulphur.In India, sulphur in diesel has to come down from 0.25% to 0.05% by weight - elsewhere it is going to 0.02%. Sulphur in petrol may be brought down from 0.2 to 0.1 by next year, but we need to catch up with the world by taking it to 0.01 as a transtitional step and to 0.005 by 2004.
Higher Octane, Higher Cetane
Higher compression engine gives lower pollution and require the octane to go up from the present 89 to 91. Similarly, diesel cetane needs to go up from 45 to 48 at first and to 53.
Take Benzene down
Benzene of 3-5 % in petrol is as bad as particulates in diesel. It has to be brought down to less than 1%.
Distillation properties
Petrol quality should improve from 85 to 90 % distillation at 180. Diesel needs to be improved from 90% at 365 to 95% at 370.
Additives
These make fuels cleaner and remove the impurities.
The first submission from Indian industry to the SC was that tougher norms could not be met without improved fuels. But when they saw that such a rigid stand would only result in a ban on diesel vehicles, they decided to rely on engine technologies to meet Euro norms.
Ad hoc solutions like increasing the thickness of the coating in catalytic converters were thought of. But improving engines alone without improving fuels would not solve the problem. In fact, it will be far more expensive, life of the converters will reduce and sulphur in the exhausts will continue to be higher.
What next?
What needs to be done is to formulate and implement a comprehensive plan of action, involving manufacturers, oil industry and road builders at the national level, and traffic managers, RTOs and maintenance inspectors at the local levels. There is also a need to motivate city managers and various city groups to monitor and improve local air quality.
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