Overview Emissions Regulations and E-Zones

Heavy-duty diesel engines produce emissions which contribute to airborne pollution including:

• Particulate matter (PM) typically consisting of particles of carbon (soot) and ash (produced from oil and fuel additives)
• NO and NO2 (collectively known as NOx)
• Unburnt hydrocarbons derived from fuel (HC)
• Carbon Monoxide (CO)

These emissions are damaging to health and various legislation has been introduced around the world to combat airborne pollution. These include the Euro regulations (covering the European Union), the EPA regulations in the US (as well as the CARB limits in California) the Bharat standards in India, the NLT standards in Japan along with regulations covering China and Brazil.

Airborne pollution is most severe in major urban centres and so many cities including London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Beijing and Rome have created Low Emissions Zones (LEZ's or E-Zones) to improve air quality. 

To meet these emission regulations heavy-duty vehicles such as trucks and buses are fitted with exhaust after-treatment devices. These can be fitted either as a retrofit system (for older vehicles) or as a standard feature on newer vehicles. After-treatment systems include catalysts to reduce levels of CO, HC or NOx along with a Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF) to reduce PM.  Ceramex® technology has been used for over 15 years to clean DPF's and to remove any accumulated PM during periodic servicing.