2008 10 Ppm Sulfur Road/Non-Road Diesel: New Euro Parliament Proposal

Diesel Fuel News, Oct 15, 2001 by Jack Peckham

Rather than wait until 2011 as the European Commission (EC) proposed earlier this year, the European Parliament could plunge ahead with a mandatory 10 parts per million sulfur limit Jan. 1, 2008 on both highway and off-highway diesel, as Parliament's official environmental rapporteur Heidi Hautala proposed last week.

The new proposal also would force non-road diesel to match the same 50 ppm sulfur limit proposed for highway diesel in 2005, followed three years later by another cut to 10 ppm sulfur.

Meantime, according to the proposal, the EC would more clearly define what "market availability" of 10 ppm sulfur fuel on a "balanced geographic basis" means. Supposedly, the new 10 ppm sulfur fuel would gradually phase-in alongside the 50 ppm sulfur fuel between 2005-2008.

The EC also must report annually (starting year-end 2003) on the actual availability of 10 ppm fuel throughout Europe.

By December 2005, the BC also must report on the need to change other diesel fuel parameters other than sulfur in order to meet emissions limits as well as avoid excessive refinery [CO.sub.2] emissions coincident to fuels reformulation (see Diesel Fuel News 4/16/2 001, p1).

The new 10 ppm ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) should enhance automaker capability of hitting fleetwide [CO.sub.2] limits of 120 grams/kilometer, the proposal says.

Other parameter changes could include density, T90, or cetane, depending upon the outcome of the pending EC review.

The new proposal to Parliament covers all diesel for highway and non-road mobile machinery (NRMM), but wouldn't affect the heating oil standard (1,000 ppm sulfur limits in 2008).

This single diesel fuel standard would "simplify market distribution and diesel infrastructures across the EU," the rapporteur's recommendation says. However, Europe's refiners earlier urged that Parliament allow market flexibility and avoid creating a "third grade" of diesel fuel via desulfurization of off-road diesel (see Diesel Fuel News 10/1/2001, p9).

Europia, the oil industry association, says the new proposal fails to prove that accelerating desulfurization deadlines could reduce net [CO.sub.2] emissions. "No other data has been advanced, so it is difficult to see how an earlier introduction date can be supported without generating more [CO.sub.2]" at refineries cracking fuels to ultra-low-sulfur levels, Europia spokesman John Price told Diesel Fuel News.

As for the push for 50 ppm (2005) and 10 ppm (2008) sulfur limits on non-road diesel, Europia says no studies or data have been produced to support such a move. "Indeed the [Euro] Commission has just started one, so action now, before the study, is premature," Price said.

Forcing the same ULSD standards upon non-road would require another 10% increase in European production of highway-specification fuel, with negative consequences for increased refinery [CO.sub.2] emissions and possibly negligible emissions improvements for cities, he said. What's more, one major engine maker -- Caterpillar -- suggests 2009 as earliest possible introduction for ultra-clean, catalyzed non-road engines, well ahead of the newly-proposed 2005/2008 non-road ULSD deadlines, Price points out.