EPA Issues Updated Standards to Address Locomotive, Marine Diesel Pollution
March 24, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued updated emission standards for locomotive and marine diesel engines.
This three-part program aims to:
- Tighten emissions standards for existing locomotives and large marine diesel engines when they are remanufactured.
- Set near-term engine-out emissions standards, referred to as Tier 3 standards, for newly-built locomotives and marine diesel engines.
- Set longer-term standards, referred to as Tier 4 standards, for newly-built locomotives and marine diesel engines that reflect the application of high-efficiency after-treatment technology.
The EPA also finalized new idle reduction requirements for newly-built and remanufactured locomotives and adopting provisions to encourage a new generation of clean switch locomotives based on clean nonroad diesel engine standards.
The rule is designed to cut emissions from all types of diesel locomotives including line-haul, switch and passenger rail as well as from a range of marine sources including ferries, tugboats, Great Lake freighters and all types of marine auxiliary engines, said the EPA.
Phasing in tighter long-term standards for PM and NOx will begin in 2014 for marine diesel engines and in 2015 for locomotive engines. Advanced after-treatment technology will apply to both types of engines. The effective dates for NOx will be two years earlier from the 2007 proposal. The EPA said it estimates 90% PM reductions and 80% NOx reductions from Tier 4 engines meeting these standards compared to engines meeting the current Tier 2 standards.
By 2030 this program is designed to reduce annual emissions of NOx by about 800,000 tons and PM emissions by 27,000 tons and those emission reductions continue to grow beyond 2030 as fleet turnover is completed, claims the EPA.
Changes from proposed rule
The final requirements are billed as bringing earlier and greater emission reductions of NOx and PM from the locomotive and marine sector than the proposed program envisioned, said the EPA.
This is accomplished by finalizing the national standards for remanufactured large commercial marine diesel engines (above 600kW) and starting Tier 4 NOx requirements for line-haul locomotives and for the largest (2000-3700 kW) marine engines two years earlier than initially proposed, said the EPA.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).