Automotive Fuel: Quality and Environmental Safety

Editorial

The Ecofond Consortium held a briefing on Environmental Safety of Automotive Fuels for the media in Dnepropetrovsk on 25 June 1998.

The Security Service of Ukraine in Kharkov blocked an attempt of two local gasoline stations to sell adulterated gasoline. The hazardous fuel included the authentic A-76 grade heavily mixed with benzene, toluene and xylene to imitate high-octane grades A-93 and A-95.

A good news, too. It is regrettable, however, that in Dnepropetrovsk very many, if not all, cars have to use fuels adulterated with these and other hazardous compounds. The practices of admixing them to gasoline have been carried on in this area for several years, in spite of numerous protests by concerned environmentalists in the media. This badly aggravates the environmental situation, already disastrous in the entire region.

Xylene, benzene, styrene and toluene total to 40 to 60 per cent in most of the fuels, as reported by Dnepropetrovsk Sanitary Monitoring Station.

The highway police, the air quality monitoring services or the meteorological stations do not measure the levels of these compounds. Although no reports on the amounts of the above aromatics in the exhaust gases are available, experts assert that complete combustion of these compounds in an engine is impossible. The combustion products therefore pollute the air to a degree that makes the common CO and CO₂ pleasant air fresheners. No catalytic converter will help. Rather, it will be poisoned prematurely.

Several measures may help remedy the situation with fuels:

(a) to introduce new governmental specifications for the fuels to limit the aromatic contents,

(b) to impose restrictions on sales of adulterated fuels based on more stringent control of fuel quality,

(c) to carry out certification of bodies having a right to sell automotive fuel,

(d) to put heavy environmental taxes on low quality fuel to be paid by both the producer and the distributor,

(e) to get involved the governmental standardization bodies and consumer societies, and

(f) to use state-of-the-art additives enabling a more complete fuel combustion and therefore improved environmental performance of vehicles.

Only the latter option is workable at present, because the country is lacking oil.

Following are some additives already in use in Ukraine.

General-Purpose Fuel Modifiers T-4 and T-6 developed by A. Ozeryanskii in Kiev, Ukraine. Non-toxic agents that reduce pollutant discharges 1.5 to 3-fold and offer 8 to 15 % savings in fuel, depending on engine wear and fuel type, up to 30 % reduction in carbon monoxide, and 50 % less smoke, while increasing the engine power by 10 to 28 %. They are very simple in use, so that a 1.2-ml ampoule is just emptied into a fuel can. One liter of T-4 is enough to modify 18,500 l gasoline or 5,600 l diesel fuel. Its cost is 2 to 3 % of the fuel cost.

Oil Modifier MP-8 of the same inventor reduces oil losses by a factor of 1.6, extends oil service life 2- to 3-fold and cuts pollutant discharges by at least 30 %, while enhancing engine power by up to 10 %. Also, this non-toxic additive reduces wear and varnish formation on engine parts and improves detergency and sealing. Its cost is about 40 % that of domestic motor oil.

Some other developments may also prove useful for making combustion engines cleaner.

Clean Air Valve developed by Ted Switen, USA. Tests on carburetor engines in Ukraine showed 2- to 4-fold reductions in the exhaust levels and fuel economy improvement by 1 %. At its prospective price of about $50, the device will pay back after a 15,000 to 20,000 km run. A modification intended for diesel engines will be run in in 1998.

Ukrainian Catalytic Converter developed in Kiev. Being similar to its Western counterparts in performance, the device will be less expensive. Ukraine committed itself to the European Union that all its vehicles would be equipped with catalytic converters by 2003.

Binary Fuel Device developed and produced on a full scale in Ukraine. Reduces hazardous exhausts by a factor of 2 to 3 through the use of a low-octane gasoline plus propane-butene. The breakeven is predicted at 20,000 km.

Yet another approach is to influence the combustion process itself by ionization, pulsed electromagnetic fields, glow discharge etc. The Institute of Energy at Dnepropetrovsk State University developed a plasma-activated sparking plug, currently in preparation for a full-scale production.

Prof. V.N. Nabivach

Ukrainian State University of Chemical Engineering, Dnepropetrovsk

The levels of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) in exhaust gases deserve special attention, for they often exceed maximum permissible concentrations 2 to 2.5-fold. A carcinogenic constituent like benzopyrene is million times as hazardous as CO and 50,000 times as harmful as NOx, an important difference being that its action is prolonged. The contribution of automotive engine exhausts to overall urban air pollution in Ukraine is approaching 30 %, a trend towards the 50 % in the West. In the absence of standards that would limit aromatics in automotive fuels, the coke and byproduct plants like those in Dneprodzerzhinsk, Zaporozhe and Avdeevka are free to produce fuels containing 50 to 70 % PACs, compared to "only" 30 to 40 % in the products of oil processing companies. PACs are fairly stable and tend to be adsorbed on building walls, trees etc., thus posing a permanent threat to public health. Another headache is dioxin, an extremely hazardous pollutant discovered in automotive exhaust gases in 1980s.

A.G. Khandryga

Manager, Industrial Product Certification Dept., Dnepropetrovsk Center for Standardization and Metrology

We do certify the fuel that is imported whenever its quality is acceptable. What happens next, when it is unloaded into storage tanks and further on, is beyond our control. Only the Agency for Consumer Protection can request a certificate of quality directly at a gas-filling station. It may then see tens of certificates issued at different places. The law does not prohibit a distributor to apply to a certification center other than the local one. Furthermore, one check-up revealed that about 80 % of the certificates were forged.

Prof. L.M. Pritykin

State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture of Dnieper Region

A rapid method to determine quality of gasoline is needed. The existing instruments generally measure octane number. This is not sufficient, for even with an acceptable octane number the exhaust gases may be highly toxic and the engine life short.

Our effort was focused on a simple device for checking on gasoline grade. Our method uses 1 to 2 drops of fuel and takes 1 or 2 seconds to determine whether the gasoline really is of the labeled grade. The hand-held instrument does not need utility power and can be used in the field. It is fabricated in Ukraine and priced at $150 to $200.

When the seller's grade does not correspond to the instrument reading, one should refer to more specific techniques for determination of the fuel fractional composition, octane number, chemical group composition etc.

It is highly desirable to set up a center for fuel check-up on an absolutely independent basis. Such a center should be unbiased, self-standing and open to everybody. It might be run by the city executive committee but never by the commercial companies dealing in fuel.

V.M. Golushko

Deputy Manager, Agency for Customer Protection

We have a right to check the quality of petroleum products since late 1997. We have inspected about 30 gas-filling stations and in 80 % of cases had to block the sales because of lacking certificates or poor quality. The problem of mixing various grades does exist but lends itself to control.

Another potential trouble is the location of gas-filling stations that are often situated near the Dnieper River. No precautions against leaks are made.

A.M. Kotsenko

Manager, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management Economy, Main Agency for Economy, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast Administration

The Oblast Administration and the municipal authorities have adopted comprehensive resolutions to facilitate automotive exhaust control, fuel quality checks and application of pollution-abatement devices.

These instructions envisage integrated efforts of all that are involved in fuel quality issues, namely the Agency for Economy, State Standardization Committee, the Customs, Agency for Customer Protection, and the Oblast Agency for Interior. A special division is being set up in the latter. An appropriate independent laboratory is to be set up on the premises of the Institute for Environmental Management and Ecology under the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.