Diesel exhaust emissions.
SA legislation governing diesel exhaust emissions has been around for some time, but has mainly had a Road Traffic bias in the way it was written. i.e. "No person shall use or cause or permit to be used upon any public road...." GG4393.
Increasingly the concept that "pollution knows no boundaries" is gaining popularity amongst ISO Auditors and Environmental Managers, and as such a trend is emerging where vehicles that never travel on public roads, e.g. forklift trucks in a warehouse are being included in emissions testing programmes.
Updates to Air Quality legislation are also contributing to the control of emissions from diesel powered vehicles.
In order to satisfy legal requirements, diesel exhaust testing is required to determine the opacity of the exhaust stream.
Opacity testing is conducted on-site using a Diesel Smoke Meter (trade names of Hartridge, Oliver, TEXA etc.).
These instruments measure opacity of the exhaust and not gaseous composition thereof because various municipalities have prescribed opacity limits with which the vehicle must comply e.g. eThekwini 60% opacity.
Opacity relates to, amongst other factors, the amount of unburned fuel carried out of the exhaust system, so annual testing and remediation can be linked to fuel and cost savings.
If you would like to know more about diesel emissions, please post a response to this post or pm me.
Jason Joubert
Managing Member
Apex Emission Testing
Vehicle, Boiler & Process Emission Specialists
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