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November 20, 2017

What are the differences between BS-IV and BS-VI emission norms? Also discuss the practical, financial and technological challenges in introducing BS VI grade fuel in Newdelhi.

Refer – The Hindu

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IAS Parliament 6 years

KEY POINTS

·         Bharat Stage — emission standards are norms instituted by the government to regulate the output of air pollutants from internal combustion engine equipment, including motor vehicles.

BS IV Vs BS VI

·         The main difference between BS-IV and BS-VI (which is comparable to Euro 6) is in the amount of sulphur in the fuel.

·         BS-VI fuel is estimated to bring around an 80% reduction in sulphur content — from 50 parts per million (ppm) to 10 ppm.

·         Another major difference is NOx. BS-VI is expected to cut NOx emissions from diesel cars by nearly 70% and from cars with petrol engines by 25%.

To deal with air pollution

·         GOI had recently said it was advancing the introduction of BS-VI grade fuels in NewDelhi by two years to April 2018 with the aim to bring down pollution.

Challenges

·         Practical – The introduction of higher grade fuel will be beneficial only if it is done in tandem with the rollout of BS-VI compliant vehicles.

·         Using BS-VI fuel in the current BS-IV engines or vice versa, may be ineffective in curbing vehicular pollution.

·         Even if automakers were to bring forward their manufacturing schedules, it doesn’t make practical sense for them to build BS-VI compliant vehicles for just one city.

·         Financial – The upgradation to BS-VI fuel is likely to cost well over Rs 40,000 crore for oil companies.

·         Industry estimates of required investment to upgrade from BS-IV to BS-V vehicles were to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore.

·         BS VI may increase the prices of vehicles by Rs 20,000-Rs 2 lakh, and that it will be a challenge to upgrade technologies to meet the higher norms in the time available.

·         Technological – The major challenge is introducing two critical components such as

a)     Diesel particulate filter (DPF)

b)     Selective catalytic reduction module (SCR)

to conditions specific to Indian driving, where running speeds are much lower than in Europe or the US.

·         Low driving speeds would make it difficult to achieve temperatures of 600 degrees Celsius required to burn the soot in DPF, and manufacturers have to be optimise DPF for India specific conditions.

·         The integrity of the vehicle too has to be considered — this would require validation tests over 6-7 lakh km, which may take up to four years.

·         In addition, they have to be equipped with an SCR (selective catalytic reduction) module — the optimization and fitment of which, too, could take an estimated three-four years.

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