Support wanes for diesel filters on London sites

Calls to scrap the London Best Practice Guide's (LBPG) requirement to fit diesel particulate filters (DPFs) to plant working on big sites in London have gained extra impetus following a halving of the allowable sulphur content of red diesel.

According to JCB (which manufacturers half the engines it fits in its machines), halving the fuel's sulphur level to 1,000ppm will cut particulate emissions by around 10%. Colin Wood, chief executive of the Construction Plant-hire Association, points out that this reduction is nationwide and on all plant using red diesel.

The LBPG requires DPFs to reduce particulate emissions by 85%, but it will only apply to certain machines on big sites in London. The biggest of these, the Olympics, is estimated to represent only about 0.5% of the UK's construction work.

Wood wants to go further with supplies of rebated or ultra low sulphur diesel available across the country ahead of its scheduled introduction at the end of next year.

"If the government encouraged the oil companies to speed up the introduction of low sulphur fuel nationwide, it would be far more efficacious and cost-effective than putting expensive DPFs on a few machines in London," he said.

Shell, one of the country's largest fuel suppliers, told CJ it can make supplies of the ultra low sulphur red diesel (which it calls ULSD gas oil) available in southern England. But it would supply this via its authorised distributor, EMO Oils, due to limited distribution resources in the South East.