Why Indonesia needs to phase out leaded gasoline now

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).