Diesel engines are extensively used in passenger and cargo transportation vehicles and military and engineering machines. The dark smoke emitted is not only a discomfort to see, but also very harmful to human health. For better control, the key to improve air quality is to promote proper inspection and maintenance practice on vehicles in use in addition to stricter inspection regulations on new vehicles.
For this program, vehicles suspended of producing pollution were filtered out by visual inspections and reporting of good citizens, and tested for emission using dynamometer. Vehicles that failed the test were punished and asked for a second test as part of the efforts for unification of inspection and maintenance. Also, tests were carried out on gas stations, fuel reservoirs and vehicles going thorough emission test for sulfur content in fuel in order to determine whether illegal fuel was used.
The program was carried out from Feb 16 2012 up to Dec 14 2012. During this period, 3,046 diesel vehicles arrived for inspections and 49 failed with a failure rate of 1.6%. 180 fuel samples were tested and 1 failed with a failure rate of 0.56%. Roadside pull-over inspections were performed on 502 vehicles and 165 of them failed the inspections with a failure rate of 32.9%. In addition, 1,307 diesel vehicles were asked in visual inspections to report to inspection stations for testing. 76 vehicles were reported by the public and 42 of them found requiring testing. Up to Dec 14, 39 vehicles reported to the tests and all reporters were replied. The program was successfully put to work, leading to effectiveness of inspections of vehicles, secondary inspections after vehicle tuning, and scrapping of old vehicles. It is estimated to reduce each of TSP and PM10 by 60.8 tons.
The following are the program’s achievements:
1.The years of control efforts seem to make significant results for the issues of emission and fuel in the diesel vehicles as a major mobile pollution source. The number of diesel vehicles on the roads leaving a thick, dense trail of smoke has dropped dramatically. For more effective control, the roadside inspection efforts will be intensified to identify as many as highly polluting vehicles as possible and reduce the failure rate of vehicles in use to 2.07%.
2.The torque of the dynamometer used previously can only go as many as 20kg-m after calibration based on original design. Chiayi City introduced the first linear torque calibrator in Taiwan that is capable of calibrating up to 80% of the entire range. Now the calibration covers the horsepower range of almost all vehicles tested, producing more reliable test data.
3.The diesel vehicle emission test station of Chiayi City went through the annual assessment of the Environmental Protection Administration, and recognized by the assessment board with a class A evaluation.
4.Chiayi City has been promoting self management of diesel vehicles. This year, the owners of 782 diesel vehicles placed their vehicles under self management. 507 of them were awarded class A at 64.8%, 275 class B at 35.2%. The number of class A improved by 21%, indicating that the owners are willing to participate in the control efforts and self management. This really helps reduce the emission of air pollutants from diesel vehicles and realize the maintenance and repair of these vehicles.
5.For the implementation of unification of maintenance and inspection for diesel vehicles, Chiayi City helps maintenance service providers for control from the very sources. In addition, the inspections at the rear end are provided to confirm how well these service providers do their jobs. The intension is to establish the maintenance capability of service providers with the idea of “maintenance before inspection,” and help diesel vehicles in use achieve physical reduction of pollutants. Chiayi County Bus Administration, Chiayi Bus and Qiang Ben Cargo Transportation were helped to win Class A this year by improving 27.8% compared to last year, a good indication of what the unification of maintenance and inspection has achieved.
