Comments
Gearing up to reduce pollution-related woes in the capital city, the Delhi government has mandated the use of only cleaner fuels and barred all toxic and polluting fuels.
According to the notification, only Bharat Stage VI compliant petrol and diesel with 10 ppm sulphur, CNG, LPG, biogas, aviation fuel, energy from waste, charcoal for limited use in tandoors and ironing of clothes, and wood for cremations are allowed. All other pollution causing fuels including petcoke, furnace oil, tyre oil etc are banned.
The notification has virtually banned coal, coal only with 0.4 per cent sulphur is allowed in thermal power plants. The state is working along with Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to shut down all its coal power plants in a phased manner. “Until next year, we are looking at shutting down the Badarpur plant,” MoEF secretary, CK Mishra told Businessline.
Mishra also said that banning won’t work unless alternatives are worked out. “For example, the facility at Bawana is producing 750 MW of power.We have to ensure that the plant which fully runs on gas works at it’s full capacity,” he explained.
With coal and other toxic fuels like petcoke and furnace oil banned, industrial units will have to shift to cleaner alternatives such as piped natural gas, electricity or BS-VI diesel.
“It is encouraging to note that use of natural gas by industries has expanded in Delhi,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director-research and advocacy, CSE.
This new notification is an amendment of the original list of approved fuels notified by the Delhi government on August 27, 1996 – a decision which was precipitated by the widespread use of polluting domestic and industrial fuels in the city.
The toxic, soot-laden emissions caused in industry by the combustion of fuels such as tyre oil, viscous and high sulphur fuel or furnace oil has led to very high concentration of oxides of sulphur and nitrogen, as well as particulate matter.
It may be recalled that tests of samples of petcoke and furnace oil by the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) in 2017 had exposed excessively high levels of sulphur – as much as 74,000 ppm in petcoke and 23,000 ppm in furnace oil. These fuels were being used widely, without any pollution control equipment or any standards for Sulphur Dioxide or Nitrogen Oxide.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.