BASF technology cleans up Philadelphia buses

Diesel engines are a durable and economic source of power, and yet their exhaust contains tiny particles known as fine particulate matter, as well as ozone-forming nitrogen oxides and many other air pollutants. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says both fine particles and ozone pose serious public health problems, including lung damage and aggravation of existing respiratory diseases, such as asthma.

The EPA believes that particulate matter, especially that found in diesel exhaust, is a likely cause of cancer. It is also responsible for 15,000 premature deaths every year in the United States. Because of this, the EPA and other government agencies have launched numerous diesel retrofit programs, many of which rely on diesel particulate filters.

While diesel particulate filters have been proven effective in many retrofit programs, they traditionally require diesel fuel with very low sulfur levels.  This presented a problem for Philadelphia, which only had access to 350 ppm sulfur diesel fuel for their buses.  BASF DPX™ filters provided a solution to that problem.   

Currently over 400 of Philadelphia’s buses have been retrofitted with BASF DPX™ filters, preventing more than 1000 tons of pollution from entering the city’s air. Importantly, this program was one of the first of its kind funded by a CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality improvement) grant from the government. The US Federal government CMAQ program provides billions of dollars for projects that reduce criteria air pollutants regulated from transportation-related sources. The result: our air is getting cleaner.