Consumers don’t mind paying as much as $16 a gallon to purchase bottled water, something they can tap for free from their kitchen sinks. But ask these same consumers to pay more for fuel? They’re outraged.
What consumers don’t understand—and by consumers Mark Bettner, heavy-duty lubricants manager at Citgo, means everyone from the father of three filling up the station wagon for a cross-country trip to the owners and operators of heavy duty construction equipment—is that it’s not inexpensive to create, test, and license new oils and lubricants these days, especially when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is constantly creating more stringent emissions requirements.“The oils we are producing today are far better than they were many years ago,” Bettner says. “The new emissions requirements are having a huge impact on our industry. It cost about $1.6 million to license a new oil in 1970. It cost $16 million to do it in 2002. It will cost about $25 million to license the next oil that comes out in 2006. This is the impact on our industry, the economic side of the picture that consumers don’t really see. They don’t bat an eye when they’re asked to pay these high prices for something like bottled water. But they wiggle when they have to pay a little extra to buy something that costs $25 million to license.”
The bad news is that Bettner and his peers in the oil and lubrication industry are certain to hear more complaints from the owners and operators of heavy-duty construction equipment. The EPA has issued stringent new emissions control regulations for diesel engines, both for on- and off-road trucks and equipment. And as engine manufacturers build and introduce the new engines that will meet these higher standards, the companies that produce oil and lubrication will have to create new products to keep these engines running smoothly.
The process isn’t easy or cheap. Manufacturers must not only develop these new fuels; they must also submit them to extensive testing. They then must spend countless dollars licensing and marketing their new products.
It’s a process that the oil and lubrication industries have had to become familiar with. Consider the changes the manufacturers of engines, oils, and lubrications for heavy-duty off-road diesel equipment alone have already gone through. In 1996, the EPA set its first emissions standards for such vehicles, changes that required such engines to reduce their emissions of nitrogen oxides by 50% and of particulate matter by 60%. That was considered Tier 2 changes. The EPA then further tightened these standards for its Tier 3 emissions regulations, requiring that off-road diesel engines reduce their emissions of both nitrogen oxides and particulate matter by another 6%. Those requirements are just now being phased in, and the engines that meet them will soon be hitting the market.
But even as engine manufacturers and oil and lubrication companies deal with the new hotter-running engines that meet the EPA’s Tier 3 requirements, they must also begin worrying about meeting even stricter federal requirements down the road. In May 2004, the EPA officially announced its Clean Air Nonroad Diesel Rule, which requires a 90% reduction in the emissions of nitrogen oxides and a 95% reduction in the emissions of particulate matter. To meet these demands, off-road diesel engines must reduce their emissions of sulfur to 500 ppm in 2007 and 15 ppm by 2010.
It’s clear, then, that officials in the oil and lubrication industry must be more flexible and creative than ever, something that everyone in the business fully understands.
“The challenges are becoming more difficult. The hurdles we have to get over are getting higher and higher with each level of new standards,” says Mike Lynskey, heavy-duty oil technology manager with Castrol BP Lubricants Americas. “And though we are getting more familiar with the process of constantly upgrading our products, we are not getting used to the challenges and the costs of doing this. It’s a very expensive process to run engine tests to qualify a lubricant to the new standards. It is something we are prepared to do, though.”
And how costly can meeting a new emissions standard be? Lynskey can’t speak for every industry player, of course, but he knows it costs his company millions of dollars to create and test the new products it needs to meet changing emissions requirements.
“To go out there and have the confidence that your products are going to work satisfactorily and that they are going to work with everyone, both on-road and off-road, in all different applications, that doesn’t come inexpensively,” he says.
So next time you’re tempted to complain about the costs of your fuel or lubricant, stop and consider what the folks who developed them have been going through.
A New Standard
While the EPA’s new emissions standards pose challenges for both engine manufacturers and the producers of oils and lubricants, officials in the diesel-engine business agree that the new requirements are a necessity. They will, after all, result in cleaner air.
Under the new requirements off-road diesel engines, including those used in construction equipment, would have to cut their emission of pollutants by more than 90% by 2014. Under the same rules, the amount of sulfur in the fuel would have to drop 99% by 2010.
Officials with the EPA estimate that the non-road diesel rules when fully phased in would reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides by 825,000 tpy when compared to current levels. The agency estimates that the emission of particulate matter would drop by 125,000 tons annually. These numbers are so high because, according to EPA estimates, equipment impacted by the new rule generates 44% of all mobile source particulate emissions and 12% of all mobile source nitrogen oxide emissions.
The off-road diesel rule is historic in that it marks the first time that advanced emissions control technologies will be incorporated into off-road equipment.
Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, a trade group based in Frederick, MD, says that his industry worked with the EPA on the latest round of emissions requirements for off-road diesel machines. The reason? Industry experts understand that clean-air regulations are here to stay, and for good reason.
“There was no controversy from the industry during the last round of off-road changes,” Schaeffer says. “And the changes are significant. They will deliver one of the most significant reductions in particulate matter out there. We are saying ‘yes’ to cleaner fuel for off-road machines. We can do it. We might just need some flexibility here and there.”
There was little doubt that industry officials and the EPA would work together on the emissions requirements, Schaeffer says. The diesel industry, after all, is an $85 billion-a-year industry, one that includes engine manufacturers and fuel refineries. EPA officials understand that they can’t enact changes that, though beneficial for clean air, will also significantly hamper the growth of the diesel industry.
It made sense, then, for the Diesel Technology Forum to work together with the EPA to introduce requirements that would protect the environment without causing undue harm to the diesel industry.
“We’ve gotten deeply involved in helping the EPA understand the technical challenges that the industry faces from these changes,” Schaeffer says. “We have worked hard to make government officials more aware of the market pressure the industry faces. If no one buys this new technology, then there are no clean-air benefits. Industry has done a lot to try and impress upon the EPA that we need to keep market pressures in mind as we go forward.”
The road to lower off-road diesel emissions will not be entirely smooth, though, Schaeffer admits, even with the work the industry has done with the EPA. The industry still faces a number of challenges as it strives to meet the changing requirements.
One of the main ones? The off-road industry relies on an extremely diverse variety of engine types and equipment, everything from portable electric generators that run on less than 10 horsepower worth of energy to 6,000-horsepower mine shovels.
Another challenge is that the industry’s engines have to handle such a wide range of tasks. Off-road diesel engines have to, for example, both propel their vehicles and operate attachments such as buckets, blades, and shovels. These engines, too, feature a wide range of exhaust temperatures because of the industry’s very low engine speeds. Engine manufacturers must also deal with significant space restraints of engine compartment size.
Engine manufacturers and oil and lube companies, then, must create new products that address these challenges, maintain the high performance that equipment and vehicle owners demand, and still meet the stringent requirements set forth by the EPA. Talk about a tough task.
Greater Challenges
Fortunately, officials in the oil and lube industry are not unfamiliar with such challenges. Consider Dan Arcy. As product marketing manager for Shell Lubricants, he has gone through a seemingly countless string of EPA emissions changes. The challenges he and his peers now face, though, are some of the biggest he’s seen.
To meet the new emissions standards required by the EPA—for both on- and off-road equipment—companies such as Shell need to be more creative than ever, Arcy says.
“We are investing more and more technology into creating these new oils,” he says. “We are coming up with a higher-performance product each time we have to upgrade to a new category. To get to this level, the engine manufacturers are going to have to install new components that are going to be significantly different than what they are using currently. That’s a big change for us, too, because we have to come up with oils and lubricants that work with these new components. And really, we don’t yet know exactly what all these components are going to be.”
As an example of the challenges his industry faces, Arcy points to the types of detergents the oil and lube industry uses in its products. These detergents usually consist of a sulfinate. Sulfinates, though, contain sulfur, and the industry will soon face far stricter sulfur limits. Oil and lube makers, then, will have to study new types of detergents that have little or no sulfinates in them.
“The after-treatment devices on these new engines could be negatively impacted if you use a high-sulfated ash oil,” Arcy notes. “When the oil is burned in the combustion chamber, you will still emit an ash in the exhaust. With the new after-treatment devices, the faster you will plug up the diesel particulate filter. In a sense, it’s not just the engine you are lubricating. Instead, you are looking at the whole system. The after-treatment device, for example, has to be protected, as well.”
To make things even more challenging, the manufacturers of oils and lubricants will also have to deal with two different emissions standards for several years, one for on-road diesel engines and another for off-road ones.
The EPA has drafted new emissions standards for on-road diesel engines that take effect in 2007 and 2010. That means, then, that on-road and off-road diesel engines will have different emissions standards until 2014, when both will be mostly equal.
This is not necessarily good news for the oil and lubricant industry. The goal, which is a challenging one, is to create one lubricant that works for both on- and off-road engines, even when these engines will face different EPA regulations.
“There are a lot of mixed fleets out there, people who have both on-road and off-road vehicles and equipment,” says Lynskey, from Castrol BP. “Realistically, our goal is to be able to cover both the off-road and on-road industries with one lubricant. We are working on creating one lubricant that meets the new emissions requirements and is not detrimental to either the off- or on-road vehicles.”
Lynskey says that the technology and know-how to accomplish this is available. And the EPA backs him up.
According to an EPA press release, engine manufacturers are on target to introduce their new cleaner diesel on-road engines in 2007 without missing any deadlines.
“We are pleased with the progress made in developing new engines for 2007 because clean engines—in combination with the clean low-sulfur diesel fuel—will help us meet the goals of the Clean Air Act and further protect public health and the environment,” says EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation Jeff Holmstead in a written statement.
And in good news for the oil and lubrication industry, and for the owner/operators who rely on their products, in late 2003 the EPA also reported that the oil industry is on track to introduce the 15-ppm sulfur diesel fuel needed to operate these clean diesel engines.
Again, though the new on-road diesel requirements are a challenge to the oil and lubricants industries, the 2007 requirements for on-road diesel vehicles, once fully phased in, will provide significant clean-air benefits. According to the EPA, the 2007 requirements will reduce 2.6 million tons of smog-causing nitrogen oxide. At the same time, they will cause a reduction of 110,000 tons of soot or particulate matter each year. The agency estimates that these reductions will result in the prevention of 8,300 premature deaths, 5,500 cases of chronic bronchitis, and 17,600 cases of acute bronchitis in children each year.
For Reginald Dias, director of commercial products for Conoco Phillips Lubricants, it makes sense that the EPA would push one end of the diesel industry—in this case the on-road portion of the industry—to meet emissions requirements first, and then turn toward the second major portion of the business, off-road diesel vehicles.
“Sometimes it is difficult to move the entire industry as a whole,” Dias says. “Sometimes it’s easier to move it one segment at a time.”
Though he understands the rationale, Dias says he also recognizes that the two conflicting emissions standards might make life more difficult for his industry and his company.
“A lot of people in the off-highway portion of the industry will be calling for the old lubricant. The challenge, then, will be covering the needs for new equipment without compromising the quality of service to the old equipment,” Dias says.
The new engines ask oils and lubricants to do more, as well. Ed Newman, marketing and advertising manager for AMSOIL, spoke with his company’s engineers and reported that the new engines demand lubricants with improved oxidation resistance, shear stability, acid neutralization, and soot dispersancy.
Taking Care of New Engines
The new off-road diesel engines, the ones that meet the EPA’s Tier 3 requirements, are soon to hit the streets. This means that vehicle owners and operators may have to change their preventive maintenance. Those who don’t may find that the latest engines don’t operate as smoothly—or cost-effectively—as they should.
The reason? Engines sporting late-model emissions control systems run hotter than do others, putting extra stress on lubrication systems. And this issue will only grow more critical as manufacturers create new engines to meet the EPA’s on-road emissions requirements for 2007 and the off-road requirements for 2014.
Bettner, from Citgo, recommends that owners and operators create a preventive-maintenance list and follow it as strictly as possible. This list, he says, should contain regular oil analysis.
“It’s important to get a trend reading on your fleet to best understand what is happening with your oil, especially with the new engines,” Bettner says. “That is the best advice we can give to any owner/operator out there. You have to do oil analysis to make sure you are getting the best performance possible.”
Owner/operators might also have to schedule more frequent oil changes, says AMSOIL’s Newman. Engine manufacturers have started to release their own diesel-oil performance specifications and, in so doing, have recommended shorter oil-change intervals. Some change intervals of 40,000 to 50,000 miles have been shortened to 25,000 miles.
For the most part, though, owner/operators should use common sense when dealing with engines with late-model emissions control systems.
“Oil analysis is really one of the best ways for owners and operators to guarantee that they will get the best performance out of the new engines,” Lynskey says. “Oil analysis gives you an insight into how the oil is working in the engine, how the engine is performing, and how the lubricant is performing within the engine. It helps guarantee that the owner/operator is getting the best oil drain—is maximizing the oil drain without over-stressing the engine. Oil analysis allows owner/operators to get the maximum output from their equipment, to make sure their equipment is up and running when they need it.”
A Time for Auto Lube Systems?
With newer-model engines running hotter than ever, more owners and operators may turn to automatic lube systems, systems that dispense lubrication to the critical components of an engine without any involvement from the operator. Such systems can help owners better maintain their engines and guarantee top performance from their on-road and off-road vehicles.
Hart Kruppe, vice president of Midwest Lube, which manufactures its own automatic lube system, says that such systems have grown in popularity during the last five years. The reason, he says, is simple.
“Operators are finding out that automatic lube systems increase the productivity of machines,” Kruppe says. “They are finding out that the machines don’t break down as much.”
Vehicles and equipment are getting more expensive, Kruppe says. Because of this, owners are less likely to wear a machine down and then simply purchase another. Instead, owners are seeking ways to lengthen the lifespan of their machines. Using an automatic lube system, which guarantees that an engine’s components receive the proper amount of lubrication, is one way to do this.
Owners who use automatic lube systems can often run their machines two to three times longer because they are rarely down for repairs or maintenance, Kruppe says.
“Everything these owners have has to work well for them to be productive,” observes Kruppe. “If you don’t have as much downtime, you are out there being more productive. And that’s what everyone in this industry wants.”
There’s only one problem, according to Kruppe. The manufacturers of automatic lube systems haven’t done a good enough job spreading the word about the benefits of their systems. If they had, Kruppe asserts, the industry would be booming even more than it has been.
“I started with these systems in 1979. I couldn’t give them away back then,” Kruppe says. “But now that there is a bigger need for these, now that machines and equipment are getting so expensive, people are starting to understand how important automatic lube systems can be. I only expect them to grow more popular as time goes on.”