Fuel and Technology Alternatives in Non-Road Engines

The Swedish Transport Administration acted as operating agent for the Annex 50 project. This report was composed by Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) in collaboration with partners in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and Canada. The partners were governmental authorities, research institutes and universities, as well as private companies. This report is only available in English.

Summary

The objectives of Annex 50 were to analyze information about non-road mobile machinery and use measurement data to 1) evaluate the fuel efficiency and emission performance 2) develop emission factors 3) assess how retrofit influence fuel efficiency and emissions, 4) investigate strategies to reduce emissions, 5) present a description of national emission inventory models, 6) develop common test procedures, 7) compile information on nonroad machinery policy options.

Mobile sources of air pollution can be divided into two categories: on-road sources and non-road sources. This report focus on agriculture tractors and construction equipment, and the term non-road engine will refer solely to engines used in non-road vehicles and equipment within these sectors. Nonroad mobile machinery (NRMM) contributes significantly to overall emissions of green-house gases and air pollutants (18% of EU’s CO2-emissions).

Engines sold today are required to meet PM and NOX emission limits that are approximately 95% lower than Tier 1/Stage I limits introduced in the mid-1990s. With the implementation of Tier 4i/Stage IIIB standards, incylinder controls were in general no longer sufficient to meet emissions significant need for more real-life emission measurement to improve the emission factors. Standardization of the models in different countries is also desirable.

The most influential policy instruments in order to influence non-road machinery have been identified as following: regulation of CO2 emissions, refund of energy tax on biofuels, fuels taxation (biofuels exempted), requirement of a renewable minimum share in fuel, demonstration projects for use of biofuels, enable type approvals tractor engines using biogas, retrofitting of machinery stock, introduction of Low Emission Zone (LEZ) and environmental requirements in municipal tenders (public procurement).

The main strategies for future policy instruments may be fuel taxation, estimation of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in a standardized way, subsidies for retrofitting of old machines, replacement of old machinery with new, introduction of emission classes for electrified machinery and subsidies for purchasing new machinery powered by electricity.

Construction and industrial sectors are believed to be better suited for policies than other sectors due to the relative stationarity and the large proportion of work commissioned by the public sector.

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