Why Indonesia needs to phase out leaded gasoline now
By Ahmad Safrudin
JAKARTA (JP): Lead compounds are added to gasoline in Indonesia as a low cost solution to improve its combustion properties (octane number). Unfortunately, the majority of lead added to gasoline is discharged into the atmosphere in the form of the fine particles of inorganic lead compounds, which enter the human body through inhalation.
The World Bank has identified lead emissions from gasoline as the "greatest environmental danger" to society in Indonesia, especially to young growing children.
Exposure to lead is a serious health problem. Lead is highly toxic to humans of all ages.
Lead is a hazardous heavy metal and a known neurotoxin. It Severely damages many human organs, most notably the nervous system, the blood-forming system, the kidneys, the cardiovascular system, and the reproductive system.
Children are most vulnerable to lead because their brains and nervous systems are not fully developed, and their lead intake in term of body weight is much higher than for adults. Low income and disadvantaged populations in developing countries are at special risk because poor nourishment increases the amount of ingested lead that is absorbed by the body. Small children are particularly exposed to lead because they tend to play at roadsides where lead emissions exist in higher concentrations.
Lead content in children's blood is associated with reduced intelligence, hyperactivity, reduced attention span, learning problems and behavioral abnormalities. There is a statistically significant correlation between blood lead levels in children and their intelligence quotients (IQ).
The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) has concluded that an increase in blood lead level to 25 ug/dl showed a 10 point reduction in IQ compared to those children with less than 10 ug/dl blood lead level.
It has been long understood that motor vehicles are a major cause of air pollution in most urban areas of the world. However, the problem is becoming more acute in many big cities of Asia where notwithstanding the recent monetary crisis the motor vehicle population is experiencing unprecedented growth. Jakarta's vehicle growth rate has been between 5 to 12 percent a year.
Motor vehicle emissions degrade air quality, contribute to the greenhouse effect, cause acid rain and tropospheric (ground level) ozone, and add toxic materials such as lead (from leaded gasoline), benzene, aldehydes, butadiene and diesel particulates to the air.
Old vehicles
In Indonesia, air pollution caused by motor vehicles is much more severe than in industrialized nations. This is primarily because of the non-enforcement of air quality standards, lax vehicle emission control, poor vehicle maintenance, a large number of older vehicles in operation, and poor fuel quality.
Measurements have shown that the highest rates of pollution are encountered in congested, slow moving traffic. Furthermore, poorly tuned vehicles emit substantially more pollution than well-tuned vehicles. Clearly, cities like Jakarta have both these factors present, i.e. congested traffic and a large number of poorly tuned vehicles. The result is a very high level of emitted pollutants.
Moreover, the continued use of leaded gasoline makes the emissions from gasoline powered vehicles a great health hazard.
Phasing out the use of leaded gasoline is the first and most important step for reducing harmful emissions produced by gasoline powered motor vehicles. A comprehensive strategy would include improving fuel quality, emission testing programs with licensing standards, incorporating appropriate traffic management and restricting the growth in vehicle use.
Leaded gasoline phased out
In view of the growing air pollution in urban areas of Indonesia, the Minister of Mines and Energy issued a decree in October 1999 to completely phase out the use of leaded gasoline by January 2003. The Government also announced a broad-based pollution control initiative called the blue sky Program, to curb the growing threat from air pollution.
In most countries, motor vehicle emission standards regulate the emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulates (only for diesel engines) on a gram per kilometer basis. The amount of fuel an engine consumes. In some developing countries including Indonesia, emission standards are still based on idle tests that measure CO and HC in terms of percentage of exhaust gas. C02 emissions, on the other hand, are directly related to fuel consumption.
Therefore, C02 emissions can be reduced by increasing the vehicle fuel efficiency and by using fuels containing less carbon. Phasing out leaded gasoline would reduce CO, HC, and NOx emissions by over 90 percent by using catalytic converters on gasoline powered vehicles. Catalytic converters can not be used with leaded gasoline, because the presence of lead in gasoline poisons the catalyst and makes the converters ineffective. The use of leaded gasoline has been discontinued in many countries, and the data clearly indicate that overall benefits of phasing out leaded gasoline outweigh the cost by a factor of ten.
It is apparent that reducing lead emissions is far from a simple process, and presents an economic challenge to the government and the private sector in Indonesia. Nevertheless, experience in other countries shows that the challenge can be successfully addressed and the consequences of failure are unacceptable.
There are a number of ways to compensate for octane deficiency in gasoline caused by removal of lead additives.
1. Gasolines contain hundreds of different hydrocarbons. Aromatics, isomers, alkylates and butane are higher-octane components in gasoline. Increasing the proportion of any of these components can increase the gasoline octane. In refineries, aromatics are produced in catalytic reformers, while isomers are produced in isomerization units.
If refineries do not have sufficient capacity for catalytic reforming or isomerization, capital investment is required for refinery modifications. Pertamina has requested funds to upgrade its Balongan and Cilacap refineries. Once the funds are obtained, refinery modifications would take about 18 months.
There are other specific compositional factors that can be addressed in the refineries. In California for example, the aromatic and olefin levels in gasoline, due to their potential for carcinogenic emissions and ozone forming tendencies, are limited to 25 percent and 10 percent by volume respectively.
2. Other high-octane additives such as ethers and alcohol can be used to increase gasoline octane. Ethanol, up to 10 percent by volume, in gasoline has been used successfully in the U.S. and Canada for over a decade.
In Brazil higher levels of ethanol have also been used with some minor modifications in vehicle fuel systems. Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) has been the favorite high-octane additive for gasoline in North America and Europe for many years. However, due to severe water contamination problems encountered in California due to the leakage of MTBE from underground gasoline storage tanks, the use of MTBE in California is being prohibited as of 2003.
3. Octane Requirement Increase (ORI) is a phenomenon that occurs when engines experience increased octane requirements with use. In the most cases ORI reaches equilibrium between 10,000 to 15,000 miles. Typically, the ORI could range between 5 to 10 octane numbers. ORI is dependent upon several factors including type of driving, fuel composition and engine design. The anticipated ORI and the octane quality of gasoline available are principle elements considered by automakers in the design of new engines.
Deposits resulting from incomplete combustion of fuel are considered to be responsible for ORI. Thus removing or modifying combustion chamber deposit (CCD), or minimizing the CCD formation reduces the octane demand of the engine and allows the use of lower octane fuel without adversely affecting the engine performance. The general perception that ORI is unavoidable and must be accommodated by higher-octane fuel is not true. Therefore, additive technology that could control the buildup of CCD and the resultant ORI would allow the use of lower octane fuels without adversely affecting engine performance.
Additives that control ORI are important for new vehicles, since automakers can optimize new engine octane demand to the fuel. However, during the transition period while phasing lead out of gasoline, it is desirable that fuel additives also reduce the octane requirement of the current population of vehicles by reducing deposits. This is clearly a difficult requirement and should be confirmed by usage and tests on vehicles.
The author is coordinator of the Joint Committee for Leaded Gasoline Phasing-out (KPBB) and executive director of the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi).