Future of retrofit DPFs in doubt as progress stalls

Progress on a list of machines to be fitted with diesel particulate filters (DPFs) under the London Best Practice Guide appears to have stalled and there are calls for the requirement to be scrapped altogether.

The Energy Savings Trust (EST), which is responsible for certifying that DPF installations meet the guide's requirement, called off a meeting to discuss which machines would require a DPF and is awaiting an announcement from the Greater London Authority (GLA). The state of the delay can be judged by the EST's statement: "There are currently no [DPF] manufacturers registered to the scheme as the scheme is not yet live."

London councils should have been inserting the guide's requirements, which also include monitoring of particulates on large construction sites and surfacing haul roads, as a condition of planning approvals from early this year, but without an approved machine list and a register of approved filters, this is difficult or impossible. When an approved list is drawn up, there would probably be several months delay in this affecting machinery on site.

"European regulations cutting particulate emissions by even more than the Code requires will be law from January 2011 and the manufacturers will comply," said Tim Faithfull of the CEA, which represents plant manufacturers. "There are plenty of examples of retrofitted DPFs on machines in Switzerland and the USA that are unlikely to meet the EU's safety requirements that are law in the UK," he said.

He questioned: "Does the GLA want people to break European and national laws and jeopardise safety on site to get a questionable improvement in air quality over London? In three years' time, the manufacturers will have taken care of this.

"If the GLA could secure supplies of ultra-low sulphur red diesel for all diesel-engined plant on London sites, research papers indicate that this could give an equal, and potentially even bigger, reduction in particulate emissions," Faithfull concluded.