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| Sunday, 21 August 2005 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Vehicle emission testing goes islandwide from mid 2006 The Ministry of Transport will launch an islandwide vehicle emission testing program from mid 2006 using Remote Sensing equipment. Under this program the baseline for vehicle emission will be introduced to evaluate emission level. A remote sensing system will be started and it would test on-road emission of the active vehicle fleet. Environmental System Products (ISP) Holdings Inc provides the technology for the program and it will be implemented by ESP, Industrial Services Bureau (ISB) and Puritas Ltd. of Hayleys. The program is funded by USAID under the Sri Lanka Clean Air Action Plan 2007. In the remote sensing method no physical samples of exhaust gases from stationary vehicles are collected and it uses the non-intrusive measurement method while vehicles are moving. It measures the relative strength of pollution parameters such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and un-burnt hydro carbon by measuring the changes of wavelengths of intra red and ultra violet rays. This new system can also measure the speed and acceleration of the vehicle and in the system the vehicle identification is digitally recorded. The system can measure the emission of a vehicle within a fraction of a second without stopping it. Therefore the testing equipment can get the measurement of around 1,200 vehicles in an hour. According to a recent survey carried out using RS equipment motor cycles and three wheelers have the highest emission rate of HC and CO and contributed 70% of HC. Four wheel vehicles manufactured after 1996 and newer petrol motorcycles and cars have lower HC and Co emission than older vehicles. Diesel commercial vehicles and lorries have a higher emission rate of NO and contribute over 75% of NO emission. There is no change of NO emission rates of new and old diesel vehicles. Accordingly diesel and two stroke petrol vehicles account for 80% of pollution. The worst 10% of vehicles creates 3-5 times more emission than a typical vehicle. The worst 20% of petrol vehicles contribute 50% of CO and 70% of HC emitted by petrol vehicles. However, RS equipment have to adjust to capture motorcycles and three wheelers. Environment Ministry sources said that considering the findings of the survey the Ministry has decided to give approval and encourage the introduction of gas for heavy vehicles. (GW) |
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