India to Switch to World's Cleanest Petrol, Diesel from April 1
- Posted By
10Pointer
- Categories
Environment
- Published
21st Feb, 2020
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Context
- India will switch to the world's cleanest petrol and diesel from April 1 as it leapfrogs straight to Euro-VI emission compliant fuels from Euro-IV grades now - a feat achieved in just three years and not seen in any of the large economies around the globe.
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Background
- BS-I emission norms were introduced for new vehicles from April 2000.
- BS-II was introduced in Delhi from 2000 and extended to other metro cities in 2001.
- India adopted BS-III fuel with sulphur content of 350 ppm in 2010 and then took seven years to move to BS-IV that had a sulphur content of 50 ppm. From BS-IV to BS-VI, it took just three years.
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How is this happening?
- From storage depots, the fuel has started travelling to petrol pumps and in the next few weeks all of them will only have BS-VI grade petrol and diesel.
- State-owned oil refineries spent about ?35,000 crore to upgrade plants that could produce ultra-low sulphur fuel. This investment is on top of ?60,000 crore they spent on refinery upgrades in the previous switchovers.
- The switchover is a tedious task as every drop of old, higher-sulphur content fuel has to be flushed out in depots, pipelines and tanks before being replaced by BS-VI.
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What has been done to improve fuel quality?
- Benzene limits have been reduced progressively from 5 per cent in 2000 to 1 per cent nationwide. Lead content in gasoline was removed in phases and only unleaded gasoline is being produced and sold from February 1, 2000.
- The octane number of gasoline signifies the improved performance of the engine. Loss in octane number due to phasing out of lead was made up by installing new facilities in the refinery and changes in refinery operation.
- RON (Research Octane Number) of gasoline for BS-2000 spec was increased to 88. This has over time been increased to 91.
- Sulphur reduction will reduce Particulate Matter (PM) emissions even in the in-use older generation diesel vehicles.
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Why is this important?
- Whit this, India will join the select league of nations using petrol and diesel containing just 10 parts per million of sulphur as it looks to cut vehicular emissions that are said to be one of the reasons for the choking pollution in major cities.
- BS-VI has a sulphur content of just 10 ppm and emission standards are as good as CNG.
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What is the difference between BS6 Compliant and BS6 Ready?
- BS6 ready is different from the BS6 compliant engine. A BS6 ready engine can have two justifications.
- The automotive company has the technology for building an engine running on BS6 fuel and follows BS6 emission norms. They are yet to be manufactured and launched on road.
- The engine form manufactures that can run on BS6 fuel but the emissions aren’t according to new norms. Almost all the BS4 vehicles on Indian roads can run on BS6 fuel. The lubricating quality of the new fuel is similar to BS4 fuel.
- The production vehicles running on the road with BS6 compliant engine run on BS6 fuel.
- There are just a few cars in India which are BS6 compliant. There is no BS6 compliant vehicle with BS6 compliant diesel engine as the engine is cable of running only on BS6 Diesel fuel.
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What is Bharat Stage (BS) Norms?
- The BS (Bharat Stage) norms are based on EURO (European) emissions standards.
- The “India 2000” was rolled out in the year 2000, followed by BS2 and BS3 in 2001 and 2005 respectively.
- It wasn’t until BS4 (4th stage) (BSIV), that more stringent emissions mandates were enforced. In 2016, the government of India decided to skip BS5 altogether and implement Bharat Stage 6 (BS 6) by the year 2020.
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What is BS6 (Bharat Stage 6)?
- The Bharat Stage 6 (BSVI) norm is the sixth mandate for vehicular emissions and a much welcome change amidst the rampant air pollution in India.
- BS 6 is a stricter, more restrictive norm that will give a jumpstart to India’s long battle with air pollution.
- With the roll-out of the BS 6 norms, India will come at par with the US and European equivalent emissions norms.
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How is BS6 different from BS4?
- The norm will bring a change in the fuel, as the BS6 compliant engine requires BS6 fuel.
- A BS6 vehicle using BS4 fuel will not adhere to the BS6 norms.
- A vital difference between BS6 and the outgoing BS4 fuel is that the BS6 fuel contains 5 times fewer sulphur traces (10 parts per million) compared to BS4 (50 ppm).
- NOx (Nitrogen Oxide) level will be brought down by a staggering 70% for Diesel engine and 25% for Petrol Engines.
- The BS6 brings along a plethora of changes, most significant being the mandatory OBD (Onboard Diagnostics) for all vehicles.
- RDE (Real Driving Emission) will be introduced for the first time that will measure the vehicle’s emission in real-world conditions against simulated conditions.
- Introduction of DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) and SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) for Diesel engines.
Quick Recap
- Bharat Stage-VI (BS-VI) norms in India—from April 1, 2020—will be the world’s cleanest fuel.
- BS-I emission norms—started in 2000—BS-II norms-in Delhi since 2000, in other metros since 2001.
- BS-VI has emission standards as good as CNG.
- BS norms are based on EURO (European) emissions standards.
- The major difference between the existing BS-IV and forthcoming BS-VI norm is the presence of sulphur in the fuel (from 50 ppm sulphur to 10 ppm sulphur).
- DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) and SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) will be introduced for Diesel engines.
