These two words have recently attracted a lot of news headlines and it becomes necessary for us to understand every aspect. So, what basically are BS engines?
BS engines stand for “Bharat Stage engines”. This term was coined in 1998 by the Indian Government in response to increasing pollution daily. This was implemented to change the configuration of engines and make them more environmentally friendly.
This BS engine idea was taken from the European region. They have their own “EURO engines”. As in India, we have BS the same as EURO in Europe.
The first emission norm was introduced in 1991 for petroleum vehicles and in 1992 for diesel vehicles. It was given mandatory for vehicles to have installed Catalytic Converters. These converters were installed in the exhaust pipes of vehicles and their purpose was to change harmful gases like CO, and NO into H2O and other non-harmful gases. And after this, only first-time non-lead petrol was introduced in India.
Bharat Stage-I
BS-I or less popularly knowns as “INDIA 2000” was first launched for 4-wheeler in 4 major cities i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai in 1999 and later in the year 2000 was implemented nationwide. This BS-I was taken about EURO-1. It allowed a maximum Carbon Monoxide emission of 2.72 g/km, Hydro carbons+ nitrogen oxide discharge of 0.97 g/km, and Respirable suspended particulate matter discharge of 0.14. To achieve India2000-compliance, the carmakers were required to re-tune the carburetor, secondary air intake system, and exhaust gas recirculation system, and increase the catalyzer capacity along with the addition of a tri-metal coating to the system.
Bharat Stage-II
Then on April 1, 2000, BS-II was launched in Delhi NCR(National Capital Region) for testing purposes, and seeing its success in the year 2003, it was launched in 14 other cities i.e. Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Kanpur, Lucknow, Delhi, Jamshedpur, Agra, and Guwahati. This BS-II was taken as a reference from EURO-2. And later in year, 2005 it was applied nationwide. BS-II norms led to a vast reduction in the emissions, with a maximum permissible Carbon Monoxide emission of 2.2 g/km, Hydro carbons+ nitrogen oxides discharge of 0.50 g/km, and Respirable suspended particulate matter discharge of 0.08. Moreover, the Sulphur content in the Bharat Stage II-compliant fuels was restricted to 500 PPM.
Bharat Stage-III
While, when the whole nation was using BS-II, the testing of BS-3 engines was already started in 14 major cities across the nation in the year 2004-05, and until April 1, 2010, it was implemented nationwide. Here is the catch, why BS-III was better than BS-II? Because BS-III engines use a Catalytic converter that reduces the formation of hydrocarbons and CO, which was not present in BS-II engines and this was taken as a reference from EURO-3.a maximum permissible Carbon Monoxide emission of 2.3 g/km, Hydrocarbons +Nitrogen oxide discharge of 0.35 g/km, and Respirable suspended particulate matter discharge of 0.05. Carmakers achieved compliance with the BS-III emissions by installing a catalytic converter that curbed the discharge of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrocarbons.
Here is the catch that whenever any type is implemented nationwide before that some other or its better version has been put up on a trial basis. It gives a headstart and also its data helps to encounter various problems.
Bharat Stage-IV
BS-IV is the most significant type of engine. At a top level, we need to understand that a BS-IV engine can manage and control evaporative vehicular emissions much better than a BS-III engine, resulting in a cleaner, less polluting vehicle. The big change is about a 90% reduction of PM (particulate matter) in BS-IV engines higher than 50 HP. The highly toxic Nitrous Oxide (NOx) vapor emissions go down by a whopping 92% in BS-IV engines higher than 75 HP. The major technology shift is that BS-IV diesel engines have to use the more advanced common-rail technology instead of the old direct injection technology. Also, all diesel vehicles in the new BS-IV era have to be fitted with an Exhaust Gas Regulator or EGR, and a Urea injector called Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR). The latter cuts down NOx vapor emissions by breaking them down and converting NOx molecules into Nitrogen and H2O. This BS-IV for trial purposes was introduced to 14 cities in the year 2010 and made mandatory from April 1, 2017, nationwide. The pollutants from petrol-powered passenger vehicles were restricted to a Carbon Monoxide emission of 1.0 g/km, Hydro carbons+ nitrogen oxide discharge of 0.18 g/km, and Respirable suspended particulate matter discharge of 0.025. To convert BSIII-compliant engines to BSIV units, car manufacturers added bigger catalytic converters to minimize nitrogen-based emissions.
Now, this was the time when some cities were breaking records in pollution levels and were smoking some really really dangerous air. Servey was telling that north Indian cities like Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Agra, etc were topped in the world’s most polluted cities. This had taken a very severe turn as many people were dying due to pollution intake. So, governments have to take drastic methods to control this.
Bharat Stage-VI
So, on trial bases, 14 cities started using BS-VI engines. These engines were more compact and efficient in comparison to previous ones. On successful trials, it was launched worldwide on April 1, 2020, and made it mandatory for all new vehicles to have BS-VI engines. The upcoming emission standards will restrict tailpipe discharge from petrol cars to a Carbon Monoxide emission of 1.0 g/km, Hydro carbons+ nitrogen oxide discharge of 0.16 g/km, and Respirable suspended particulate matter discharge of 0.05. Most of the results are still awaited.
Now the question arises that why the government didn’t implement the BS-V version. The answer is simple at that time, pollution was increasing at an alarming rate and right and a fast decision has to be taken also they have to make peace with the EURO system. So, they decided to overtake the BS-V version and instead of that launched the BS-VI version. One more region is also given that, the oil companies demanded some time so that they could cope with the changing variants. As for the different types of engines, different types of fuels are needed. We cannot use the fuel(petrol, diesel) of BS-III engines for BS-VI engines as that can choke the main engine and in severe cases may lead to busting the engine.
Will BS-VI cars cost more than BS-IV models?
Some high-end carmakers, like Mercedes, BMW, Audi, and Volvo, have already rolled out BSVI-compliant cars. Moreover, even mainstream carmakers, like Honda Cars India and Maruti Suzuki, have come up with engines that can be easily tuned to achieve BS VI compliance. Currently, a diesel-powered car costs roughly Rs 1 lakh more than its petrol-sipping sibling. With the advent of the BSVI norms, however, this price gap can increase to up to Rs 2.5 lakh. Things should become a lot clearer shortly.
Hope that this will give you all more clear view of this BS engine and its effect on our environment. So, it is always advised to use the BS-VI engine for a safer and cleaner environment.
SIGNING OFF.
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