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EU proposes Stage V emission standards for nonroad engines

25 September 2014

The European Commission today proposed Stage V emission standards for mobile nonroad engines. The Stage V proposal provides for more stringent emission limit values for internal combustion engines installed in non-road mobile machinery (NRMM) and sets out harmonized rules for placing those engines on the EU market.

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The Stage V NRMM proposal covers a very wide variety of machinery, ranging from small gardening and handheld equipment (lawn mowers, chain saws), through construction machinery (excavators, loaders, bulldozers) and agricultural & farming machinery (harvesters, cultivators), to large engines used in railcars, locomotives and inland waterway vessels.

Under the proposal, a new nonroad engine Regulation will replace the existing Directive 97/68/EC, comprising 15 Annexes and amended 8 times since it was adopted in 1997. A “split-level” regulatory approach will be introduced, similar to that used in EU emission regulations for onroad engines and vehicles.

Compared to the existing Stage III/IV standards, the Stage V proposal extends the scope of regulated engines—it covers previously unregulated engines below 19 kW and above 560 kW. Certain previously unregulated engine categories will also become regulated, for example snowmobiles.

The proposal also introduces—for the first time ever in the NRMM sector—a limit on particle number (PN) emissions, complementing the limit on particle mass (PM). In this way, emissions of so-called ultrafine particles will also be limited, taking up the most recent conclusive evidence on their adverse health effects, said the Commission.

A PN limit of 1×1012 kWh-1 is proposed for nonroad engines from 19 to 560 kW. This limit is intended to reflect “the highest levels of performance currently obtained with particle filters by using the best available technology”. If adopted, this limit will ensure that all affected nonroad engines be equipped with diesel particulate filters (DPF). The current Stage IV requirements (as well as the harmonized US Tier 4 standards), while originally designed to force the DPF technology on nonroad engines, have been met by many manufacturers using in-cylinder PM controls in conjunction with urea-SCR aftertreatment, without particulate filters.

The Stage V proposal includes provisions for in-use testing, also for the first time in the NRMM sector. The in-use gaseous and particulate emissions are to be monitored by testing engines installed in nonroad mobile machinery operated over their normal duty cycles. The Commission will conduct pilot programs to develop appropriate testing procedures.

Detailed provisions on the in-use testing and other detailed technical specifications are to be adopted by 31 December 2016.

Source: European Commission