Zera to phase out diesel

05 Jun, 2016 - 00:06 0 Views
Zera to phase out diesel

The Sunday Mail

Livingstone Marufu
The Zimbabwe Regulatory Authority will gradually phase out conventional diesel and introduce Diesel 50 to reduce carbon emissions and cater for modern vehicles.
D50 has lower sulphur content, with the chemical element occurring at 50 parts per million.
Standard grade diesel has at least 500 ppm, and such high sulphuric concentration often leads to formation of sulphates in a car’s exhaust stream and the atmosphere.
Low-sulphur fuels burn cleaner and are compatible with control devices that can significantly reduce vehicle emissions.
Developed countries are already on D10, while some parts of Africa are catching on to D50.
Experts say reducing sulphur generally increases vehicle lifespan, and curtails release of dangerous gases into the atmosphere.
Sulphur is a combustible non-metal chemical that occurs naturally in crude oil.
Zera chief executive, Engineer Gloria Magombo told The Sunday Mail that extensive consultations are underway as Zimbabwe shares key fuel infrastructure with other Southern African countries.
“Zera is promoting the use of D50, which is compatible with emission-reducing devices, which are installed in the latest vehicle models. The emission-reducing devices such as diesel particulate filters greatly reduce toxic elements in exhaust emissions, thus leading to a cleaner environment,” she said.
“Other countries in Europe and United States of America are using Diesel 10, and are moving towards D50. Zimbabwe now has a significant number of vehicles with these emission-reducing devices, which require D50 only.
The price of D50 has generally been changing in response to international D50 price movement.
“Internationally, there has been an increase in the uptake of D50 due to increased vehicles with diesel particulate filters, hence the cost of production had been on a downward trend due to the economies of scale.”
Zimbabwe consumed 863,46 million litres of diesel and 467,31 million litres of petrol in 2015; and 190,14 million litres of diesel and 113, 86 million litres of petrol between January and May 2016.

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