News Release Details

Indian Refineries on fast track to meet BS VI emission norms.
New Delhi   28-Mar-2016

Indian Refineries are gearing up to meet strict timeline of April,2020 set for supplying superior fuels for BS VI emission norms. India has been following fuel and emission norms in line with European standards, normally known as Euro norms. Fuel specifications are specified to meet the emission standards corresponding to meet the specific emission standards such as Euro IV , Euro V or Euro VI. Countries around the world had been making the minor changes in fuel specifications depending upon their specific requirements. India will be switching over to 100 per cent BS IV emission norms by April,2017. India has made a very ambitious and challenging plan to leap from BS IV to BS VI within a span of three years. Such quantum jump within a span of three years is being attempted perhaps for the first time by any country in the world. This was disclosed by Shri Sanjiv Singh, Director [ Refineries ], IndianOil.

To meet BS VI emission norms, Oil companies will be required to supply suitable fuel, termed as BS VI, specifications of which have been recently notified through a Gazette notification. Over the years, the fuel specifications have seen significant improvement since the emission control program started in the country in 2003. For petrol Engines, one of the most critical specification is Research Octane No. (RON), which has improved from 88 in BS II to 91, which is at par with regular 91 octane gasoline required for Euro VI emission norms. Other critical specifications such as Benzene and Aromatics have also undergone considerable improvement from earlier limits specified in BS II. For Benzene, these limits have been brought down to 1 per cent volume max. and for Aromatics to 35 per cent volume max. which are in line with Euro VI fuel specifications. The sulphur specification for petrol is also being reduced 50 times from a level of 500 ppm for BS II fuel to 10 ppm in BS VI, which is same as Euro VI specification. Almost all other specifications for petrol being proposed for BS VI fuel are aligned to Euro VI gasoline specification. Similarly for diesel , the major specification w.r.t sulphur and cetane number are exactly in line with Euro VI specification. The sulphur level in diesel is proposed to be brought down to 10 ppm from a level of 500 ppm in BS II and cetane no. in BS IV and BS VI 51 as against 48 in BS II. The minor change proposed in BS VI diesel in comparison to Euro VI is density which is proposed to be in the range of 820-860 kg./m 3 as against 820-845 kg/m 3 in Euro VI. Various States have indicated almost negligible impact of this density on engine emissions. On the other hand, marginally higher density will result in more quantity of fuel per litre. Directionally this should improve the fuel economy with no negative impact on emission. Other developing countries have also kept similar variation. For example, Japan has similar limit of 860 while USA has no such limit in their diesel specification. The flash point for BS VI is proposed as 35 as against the limit of 55 for Euro VI. Our country had been handling diesel of proposed flash point specification safely for years and there is no advantage of raising this limit further.

India is a diesel driven economy and unlike refineries in US and Europe Indian Refineries are designed to produce more diesel, as compared to motor gasoline. It is for this reason that minor relaxations are required to meet the needs of the country and sustain the GDP growth without any adverse impact on emissions. These relaxations will also enable Indian refineries to augment the production of diesel and help save valuable foreign exchange for the country.

While fuel quality is required to meet the emission norms, suitable design of engines are essential to achieve the desired results. While BS VI fuel used in BS VI compliant vehicles would result in emissions in line with design, using BS VI fuel in other vehicles would not result in low emissions. Though the country would be switching to BS VI vehicles from 2020, the impact on vehicular emission may not be significant immediately. The benefit of superior engines running with superior fuels would be gradual and it will be significant only when substantial percentage of BS VI compliant vehicles would run on road.