Ford Stymied By Diesel Emission Regs

Automotive Industries,  March, 2000  by John McCormick

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Tough new U.S. exhaust emissions regulations not yet in force are already viewed as a serious challenge by Neil Ressler, Ford's chief technical officer. He acknowledges that the most difficult of the recently passed federal standards, known as Tier II, are the ones scheduled to start in 2007. That's when light-truck tailpipe emissions will have to be as "clean" as passenger car emissions. Gasoline engines are one hurdle but diesels -- which offer trucks and sport-utilities far greater fuel economy, and thus reduced [CO.sub.2] output -- are quite another issue.

"Particularly when it comes to diesels, we really don't know how to meet them (stricter standards)," Ressler laments. "We could not meet them in a laboratory, never mind in a vehicle that has to roll around for 150,000 miles."

The same goes for California's emissions laws. Last November, in a surprise decision, the California Air Resources Board included light-truck diesels in its new LEVII regs, which basically halves present gasoline-engine emissions levels. LEVII, like the federal standards, will be phased in over a three-year period, beginning in 2004. Automakers have been given until 2007 to make light trucks comply. Many experts believe that diesels will not be able to meet the standards' ultra-low permitted levels of oxides of nitrogen (NOx).

The solution may be in a new generation of exhaust aftertreatment technologies, including exhaust gas recirculation, lean-NOx catalysts and NOx traps. Ford and other automakers are scrambling to develop these, while they wrestle with the extra cost.

Reducing the level of sulfur in fuels is also critical to the lower-emissions battle, Ressler adds, but hampered by lack of equipment at some refineries.

"It's going to be a real stretch for diesels," Ressler admits.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Cahners Publishing Company
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group