Engine Makers: Delay Egr

Diesel Fuel News, March 5, 2001 by Jack Peckham

Engine makers hit by U.S. EPA's "consent decree" that would force introduction of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) by October, 2002, now ask EPA's Christine Todd Whitman to delay the requirement until January, 2004.

Cooled EGR is more vulnerable to sulfuric acid from diesel fuel combustion, so engine makers would prefer wide availability of lower-sulfur diesel fuel when the EGR mandate hits.

A letter to EPA from Detroit Diesel points out that DDC, Cat, Cummins, Mack and Volvo "seek to resolve concerns regarding implementation of 1998 consent decrees including the schedule for new emissions requirements now set to apply in October 2002."

While the companies agreed to the accelerated 2002 EGR roll-out to settle EPA claims of excess nitrogen oxides (NOx) "off-cycle" emissions on earlier engines, "each has run into serious problems in testing and in resolving what electronics EPA would approve for use with this technology compared to what has been accepted," the DDC letter says.

"Product reliability and durability testing is now far behind schedule. Release of the EGR engines in 2002 is likely to cause customer rejection and unacceptable warranty costs. To comply with the current decrees, the manufacturers are likely to curtail production and reduce work-force, with cascading impacts on truck manufacturers, their suppliers and the economy in general."

Proposed solution: Delay the EGR mandate 15 months, until 2004. In exchange, consent-decree engine makers would voluntarily extend lower NOx limits for 2005-06 engines, despite a 14-state threat (legally in doubt) to mandate such limits anyway (see Diesel Fuel News 11/27/2000, p.3). What's more, DDC says it's "prepared to consider committing to substantial additional emissions reduction measures if necessary to achieve a resolution of this matter in the very near future."