The government has been considering introducing low-sulphur diesel for vehicles to reduce air pollution, omit health hazards and ensure low carbon emission.
To meet that goal, it has been preparing a roadmap to discourage the use of diesel fuel with high sulphur content.
According to the draft roadmap, the government will not allow importing of diesel containing sulphur more than 500ppm from 2016. Moreover, those imported fuel will go through the distribution network without blending.
The government will also introduce Emission Control Devices (ECD) for vehicles 2-3 years down the road ensuring use of low-sulphur diesel.
As part of the long-run plans, importing of diesel with 350ppm or less sulphur content will be allowed from 2020 and by 2023 ceiling for sulphur content will be 50ppm.
These findings were shared at the national consultation on the 3rd draft of the roadmap for adapting low-sulphur fuel held at the Department of Forest in the capital yesterday.
The Department of Environment, in collaboration with Clean Air Asia, has initiated a project titled “Reducing Black Carbon from Heavy Duty Diesel Vehicles and Engines” to achieve a pollution-free environment.
Currently, the upper limit of sulphur content in diesel used in Bangladesh is 2500ppm. This high sulphur content is partly responsible for particulate matter which is a major pollutant from diesel-run vehicles.
Around 3 million tons of diesel is needed annually in Bangladesh. Of them, 15% which is 0.4 million tons is produced by Eastern Refinery Limited (ERL) per year and the rest 85% is imported from abroad.
The sulphur in diesel produced by the ERL is around 5000ppm while it is 2000ppm in the imported diesel. Thus when these two are blended the resultant blend has a sulphur content of around 2500ppm.
“Diesel engine vehicles running in and around Dhaka city contribute to pollutant emissions to a great extent. So reducing sulphur from the current 2500ppm down to 1500 or even to 500 will indeed have a considerable effect on the air quality of the city,” said Quazi Sarwar Imtiaz Hashmi, focus person of the project.
Sulphur dioxide is the principal and most ubiquitous urban air pollutant which is a highly irritating gas, and at levels as low as 0.3 to 1.0ppm it can be identified by either smell or taste. The sulphate particulate matter is very much harmful for human body especially for small children.
In 2012, the World Health Organisation declared that diesel pollutants are carcinogenic, which means the particles could cause cancer. These pollutants can also reduce visibility by creating smog and may be responsible for acid rain.
However, reducing the sulphur content from the diesel requires gradual approach as the vehicles are also needed to be upgraded to use low-sulphur fuel, opined speakers at the consultation.
The meeting further revealed that the ERL proposed a capacity expansion of further 3 million tons of crude oil in addition to the existing 1.5 million tons. This will boost the production of diesel up to 1.2 million tons.
ERL has also proposed setting up a 1.4 million tons de-sulphurisation unit which will be able to produce 350ppm sulphur diesel.
