Page 16 - CEN 13 Apr.indd

14
APRIL 2013
opinion piece
“We are already experiencing the demand for
more environmentally friendly products however;
inadequate supply of cleaner fuels limits us from
making the vehicles available to the
South African market.”
Kobus van Zyl, Commercial Vehicles Vice President –
Mercedes-Benz SA
And around fuel hangs the ‘can of worms,’ emissions
issues with their greater focus on green technology.
The ‘Green Scene ’
The European Union passed emissions legislation
which stipulated that by October 2006 all engines had
to comply with the Euro lV emissions standard, which
at the time, was the latest stage in a legal process that
started with Euro l, in 1993.
The industry responded with two different innovations:
Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) and Exhaust Gas
Recirculation (EGR), both of which require a form of
exhaust gas after treatment. An integral element of the
former technology was AdBlue.
(AdBlue is a colourless liquid made up of 67.5%
demineralised water and 32.5% urea. In the SCR
process its role is as a reduction agent that reacts with,
and neutralises, nitrogen oxides (NOx))
Some OEMs have researched biofuel-
driven engines, while others rely on
Adblue, in an endeavour to adhere
to the emissions standards, decrease
their carbon footprints and bring down
operational costs, without compromising
efficiency.
So too, streamlined designs, recyclable,
lighter materials, fewer and improved
moving parts and intensive R&D, have
drastically reduced fuel consumption
and improved green technology in
major fleets, across the globe.
Fuel companies are also investing vast
amounts of R&D intodeveloping cleaner
burning fuel that will allow the higher
tier engines to run. Unfortunately, South
Africa’s ‘dirty diesel’ issue has stunted a faster transition
to higher technology, as we still shuffle along with Tier
ll and lll, while our overseas counterparts are on Tier
V and higher. To their credit, however, there are locally
represented manufacturers who have fleets running
on higher tiered engines, but fuel availability remains
a problem.
“As southern Africa and the rest of Africa starts to
address emission issues, the quality of diesel will
have to be addressed as well. This will lower the
risk of using more environmentally friendly
Tier lll and Tier lV engines in the
yellow metal industry.”
Garron Troskie, Vice General Manager – Shantui Equipment Southern
Africa (Pty) Ltd
In the US and Europe, there are now equipment and
machines that boast Tier Vl engines that expel all but
pure oxygen; the world has seen a range of hybrid
passenger cars; yellow metal equipment and trucks
are running cleaner burning engines and the planet
is so environmentally focused that our lifestyles have
changed considerably around the ‘green scene’.
In 2011, the South African government climbed on the
band wagon and entered into the Green Economic
Accord, which aims to create 300 000 jobs in the next
10 years through investment in green economy.
However, with these technological advances, we have
increased costs attached to any operation, by way of
carbon taxes, expensive R&D and ongoing ‘dirty diesel’
issues in developing countries throughout the planet.
Often, green solutions are more expensive than their
lower-tiered counterparts and add to operational costs.
This has become an additional focus: how to go green
while keeping overheads out of the red…
“HPE Africa has kept the technology on the units
standard to assist with servicing and operating,
especially in remote areas. The emissions of HPE
Africa’s products are constantly improved to make
them as environmentally friendly as possible.”
Kirsty Denholm, Marketing Manager – HPE Africa
“Scania Sweden has been in the forefront of
technological development in truck engines. The
company pioneered ethanol-fuelled vehicles,
which can justifiably boast among the lowest fuel
consumption and emissions in the world.”
Gideon de Swardt, Corporate Relationship Manager –
Scania South Africa.
At the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen
in 2010, (the Copenhagen Accord) a new political
accord was struck by world leaders, which provided
for unambiguous emission pledges by all the major
economies – including China – and other major
developing countries.
This escalated the move toward ‘going green’ and
had major OEMs fast-tracking their efforts to produce
cleaner running engines across the spectrum, from
trucks to excavators.