Phillip Troppman, Legislative Officer for Sustainable Mobility and Automotive Industry at the European Commission outlined the potential revisions to the Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM) Directive at Integer’s 9th Diesel Emissions Conference & AdBlue Forum Europe.
Troppman stated that the revisions are in response to the increasing contribution to Europe’s emissions from the non-road sector and have already identified areas for potential emissions reduction. The revised Directive would also seek to harmonise regulation with global NRMM legislation. He also reported that some member states were struggling to meet air quality regulations with urban areas suffering from high levels of PM and NOx emissions.
Elements that could be introduced to the revised directive include a widening of the range of regulated engines. These engines include CI (compression ignition) engines below <19 kW, CI engines above > 560 kW engines, stationary engines, SI (spark ignited) engines >19 kW and snow mobiles which are currently regulated in the US.
The directive will also examine new emission limits including constant speed engines, inland waterway vessels, Stage IV legislation for 19 to 37 kW engines and moving towards Stage V limits.
Troppman outlined the European Commission’s draft roadmap of policy options which ranged from remaining with existing legislation through to harmonising regulation with the EPA, further alignment with the on-road sector, equivalent to Euro VI regulation and extending level of emissions reduction ambition beyond this with engine performance checks after the type approval process.
The European Commission is currently undertaking an impact assessment of the policy options and aims to finalize the revised directive by the end of this year for adoption at the end of 2014.
The discussion took place at the Diesel Emissions Conference taking place at the Intercontinental Hotel in Düsseldorf on the June 18 to 20.
