Petrol fuel quality and its effect on the vehicle technology and the environment
report
This study has been done on request of the Dutch Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate, ILT. The objective is to evaluate petrol fuel quality and its effects on the vehicle technology and the environment. Over the past five decades, the petrol fuel quality has been improved step by step in order to reduce the polluting vehicle emissions and also as precondition for vehicles to comply with increasingly stringent emission legislation (e.g. Euro 1 through Euro 6 in Europe). In general the current petrol fuel quality in Europe, and other main regions, is fully compatible to older vehicles. One exception is the compatibility with ethanol blends containing 5 and 10 volume percent ethanol (E5 and E10). Therefore, E5 or ethanol free petrol should remain available for a number of vehicle types built before 2010. The evaluation has shown that a good fuel quality is of key importance to protect the health of people and the environment, independent of the age of the vehicle, the technology used or even the maintenance of the vehicle. The most relevant fuel specifications include Fuel Sulphur Content (FSC), benzene- and metals content (particularly manganese) and vapor pressure. Fuels customary in Europe since 2009 contain sulphur level <10ppm, benzene < 1% and no addition of metals (WWFC petrol category 4 requirements). An increase in sulphur level up to 30 or 50 ppm could be acceptable for common, yet older petrol cars (WWFC petrol category 3 requirements).
Topics
TNO Identifier
884199
Publisher
TNO
Collation
25 p.
Place of publication
Den Haag