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Basically, the brouhaha surrounding fuel in South Africa right now is about the health of the planet and the quality of the air we breathe. To avoid an apocalyptic future, it is imperative that harmful toxins are removed from exhaust fumes. The burning of diesel and petrol has been a major contributor to global warming through the release of 'greenhouse' gases. Diesel is also known to release carcinogenic substances (nitrogen oxide [NOx] and particulate matter [PM]). As a result, governments around the world, including South Africa, have signed the Kyoto Protocol, a pact between 141 countries that account for 55% of the planet's greenhouse gas emissions. 

Sulphur the killer
The objective of the protocol is to reduce greenhouse emissions by 5.2% by 2012. Interestingly, George W. Bush retracted the USA (the world's biggest polluter of the atmosphere) as co-signatories in 2001. He said it would be too costly to make the necessary changes, that emerging nations were not subject to the same stringent emission targets as the USA and that the scientific basis of the Protocol was flawed. An alarming decision when, in a report lifted off the website of television station, Aljazeera, William Becker, who represents state and local air pollution control agencies in the USA, says, "sulphur emissions from diesel engines cause as many as 10 000 deaths a year among Americans with heart and lung ailments. It's a matter of life and death. And the solution depends on removing the sulphur."

South Africa, however, despite lagging well behind Europe, Asia and Australia in emissions control (only legislating Euro 1 standards in January 2005, almost ten years after Europe did in 1995/6), has committed itself to lowering emissions with the promulgation of the Air Quality Act in 2005. At the heart of this new legislative drive are local oil companies whose refineries make the diesel we use in our trucks. Commendably, all local diesel suppliers are now Euro 2 compliant, effectively reducing the sulphur content from 3000ppm (parts per million) to 500ppm. As the year progresses, diesel of Euro 4 standard (a maximum of 50ppm) will become available.

These developments become all the more resonant when environmental specialists comment on the situation. Speaking to the BBC, the head of the UN Environment Programme, Klaus Toepfer, says, "Kyoto is only a first step and much hard work needs to be done to fight global warming. Climate change is the spectre at the feast, capable of undermining our attempts to deliver a healthier, fairer and more resilient world. Recent projections on planet warming make terrifying reading, painting a vision of a planet that is spinning out of control." Ominously, he concludes, "it will be Africa that will bear the burden of the world's failure to act."
 

Euro 2 diesel pumps... an Engen 500ppm nozzle.

The transporter's challenge
With our vehicle parc growing month on month, the SA transport industry will no doubt be monitored closely by environmental protection officials to ensure emission ratings are adhered to. As of January 1st 2006, all newly homologated trucks must comply with Euro 2 emission ratings. Trucks homologated before December 31st 2005 have until 2010 to comply with Euro 2 ratings, says Peter Wraight, sales director Mercedes Benz Commercial Vehicles. 

Diesel quality in South Africa has always been questionable and often blamed for truck engine failure. With new hi-tech truck models arriving every year, local transporters have had their hands full keeping their increasingly sensitive workhorses on the road. Now with new low sulphur diesel (LSD) and ultra low sulphur diesel (ULSD), one would hope that the truck combustion chamber becomes a happier place.

One may also have cause for concern. When Western Australia went Euro 2 in 2000, some trucks experienced fuel pump and injector failure resulting from shrunken O-rings and gaskets, a direct consequence of the low lubricity characteristics of LSD. 

Fuel for thought
Diesel OEMs are by now well aware of the potential shortcomings of LS diesel in truck engines and have additives to compensate for the drop in lubricity. The question remains though: Will the local operating environment play a compromising role in this move towards more sophisticated trucking?

Diesel contamination is caused by a host of circumstances and should be prevented at all costs. It does no good to have new, clean diesel leaving the refinery only to be fouled up down the distribution chain. By the same token, there will be no improvement in air quality if trucks are poorly maintained, their injectors clogged and belching out great plumes of half-burned fuel. Ultimately, it is about quality control - keeping diesel clean all the way from refinery to exhaust pipe, making sure injector units are working perfectly, ensuring the correct lubricants are added to new diesel and, most importantly, ensuring that trucks are driven properly, within the legal speed and mass limits.

In this Special Interest Report we take a look at the role new diesel will play in the business of transport and examine some areas where truck owners can minimise the risks of downtime and escalated operating costs.