Some 500 city buses in half a dozen
cities in France and now also in Berlin, Germany's capital city, are using a new type of
diesel fuel that contains 13 percent microscopic water droplets about one-thousandth of a
millimeter in size.
Marketed by Elf Aquitaine, a major refiner, after a
three-year test period, the new fuel mix is environmentally friendly, with up to 30
percent lower Nox and up to 80 percent fewer particulate and soot emissions. The mix was
tested under strict controls in the French cities of Chambery, Lyon, and Paris, and is now
also employed by the Berlin Transit Authority in a fleet test with 15 buses.
Trademarked "Aquazole," the mix is now available
commercially in France at the same cost as diesel. Elf Aquitaine currently maintains five
production lines, each of which is capable of supplying at least a thousand buses.
The company said it expects a major switch to Aquazole by
municipal bus fleets and heavy trucks because of environmental considerations and that
fact that no costly retrofits are required for its use. Bus and truck engines can handle
the new fuel with no additional installation or maintenance costs. A minimal downside is a
slightly reduced power output, on the order of four to eight percent less than the
conventional diesel fuel currently in use.
A new version of the diesel/water mix that also reduces
sulfur particles to five parts per million is now under development. This latest mix will
be tried in London starting in the new year by United Bus.
Elf plans to have a French national market of about 1,000
city buses by early 2000 and foresees a national Aquazole fleet size of about 4,000 buses
and 2,000 waste removal trucks by the beginning of 2001.
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