On leaded and unleaded gas

On leaded and unleaded gas

In a letter to The Jakarta Post of Oct. 24, 1997, we were
invited to enlighten the public with unbiased scientific
information on unleaded gasoline. For good reasons, practically
all countries in the world are eliminating or have already
eliminated lead in gasoline. Only OCTEL in England, the last
major producer of lead additives for gasoline, still strongly
supports leaded gasoline in various ways and with obvious
motivation. The Ethyl Corporation and Du Pont in the USA were
forced to stop the production of lead additives around 1980
because of their high toxicity.

In Jakarta, nearly one million kilograms of lead will be used
in gasoline this year. Leaded gasoline is the main source of lead
poisoning and the elimination of leaded gasoline in other
countries has reduced lead pollution drastically.

We push for lead free gasoline not only because of the
toxicity of lead, but also because it allows the use of catalytic
converters, which reduce CO, NOx and hydrocarbon pollution to
about 10 percent in cars and to about 30 percent in motorcycles.

Every vehicle sold without a catalytic converter pollutes at
an irreversibly high level for its entire life cycle. This is why
it is important to have unleaded gasoline and catalytic
converters as quickly as possible, to stabilize pollution at the
lowest possible level. The Association of Indonesian Automotive
Industries announced it will equip new vehicles with catalytic
converters as soon as unleaded gasoline is widely available.

Unleaded gasoline will allow the use of modern engine
management that reduces fuel consumption by about 15 percent, as
well as reducing maintenance costs. This not only offsets the
approximately Rp 60 higher production cost of unleaded gasoline,
but also reduces the emission of the greenhouse gas CO2 by 15
percent. The recently introduced ultra-lean direct injection
engines, which reduce fuel consumption and pollution by a further
30 percent, depend also on unleaded gasoline. Thus the potential
in cost, pollution and natural resource savings with unleaded
gasoline is huge.

The aromatics that were described as problematic in unleaded
gasoline are already high in Indonesia's leaded gasoline, and
unleaded gasoline does not necessarily lead to a further
increase. In any case, we agree that aromatics like benzene can
and should be reduced by isomerization, alkylation, oxygenation
or polymerization processes in the refineries. The future use of
catalytic converters in new vehicles will progressively reduce
residual benzene in exhaust gases.

The Segar Jakartaku (my fresh Jakarta) campaign for cleaner
air in Jakarta has no vested interest except the health of
Jakarta's population. The project, executed in collaboration with
Indonesian authorities, is financed by Swiss taxpayers and
strives also for cleaner buses as well as improved inspection and
maintenance of all vehicles.

DAVID KUPER, HUGO SAGER

Swisscontact

Jakarta