Ship main engines excluded from new EPA emissions rules

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

19 Mar 2008

The US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) released new emissions standards for marine engines, but not for Category 3 engines."The regulations apply to both newly manufactured marine diesel engines and remanufactured commercial marine diesel engines above 600 kilowatt (kW) or 800 horsepower (hp) with displacement less than 30 litres per cylinder installed on vessels flagged or registered in the United States," the EPA announced."Category 3 engines are not included in this rule," it noted. "They are typically used for propulsion on ocean-going vessels and will be addressed in a separate EPA rulemaking."Three 'strategies' will come into play for applicable engines under the new rules.Firstly, "as early as 2008", new standards will apply to remanufactured engines.Secondly, Tier 3 standards, that "reflect the application of currently available technologies to reduce engine-out PM and NOx emissions" will start to be introduced in 2009 for new engines.Thirdly, Tier 4 standards will apply to new marine engines above 600 kW (800 hp) starting in 2014 with "high-efficiency catalytic aftertreatment technology...enabled by the availability of ultra-low sulphur diesel fuel with sulphur content capped at 15 parts per million, which will be available by 2012." The EPA had been criticised for being slow to introduce new engine standards, and a lawsuit was introduced against it by activist groups last year, but was this week being applauded for its actions."EPA has delivered a strong programme that will go a long way towards solving the problem of...ship pollution in the future," said Richard Kassel, a director at the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC).Targeting specific pollutants and improving public health was a driving factor in the new rules, according to the EPA."EPA estimates this final rule will result in PM reductions of about 90 percent and NOx reductions of about 80 percent from engines meeting these standards, compared to engines meeting the current standards," it said. "The final rule will result in substantial benefits to public health and welfare and to the environment."For Category 3 engines, the EPA took stakeholder comments up until the end of February and expects to finalise the rules towards the end of this year.