A senior figure at the National Marine Manufacturers' Association (NMMA) has reiterated that all new stern drive and inboard gas engines built from next year onwards for US boats will need catalytic converters.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced last year that it will be applying new emissions standards for boats in all American states in 2010 following similar legislation changes in California in 2008.

John McKnight, Director of Environmental and Safety Compliance at the NMMA, has explained that the new laws refer to "engine model year" rather than "boat model year", boattest.com reports.

He noted that companies which have already produced engines this year and intend to sell them after 1st January 2010 will not fall foul of the EPA as long as catalytic converters feature on their 2010 models.

"We expect manufacturers to meet these standards with three-way catalysts and closed loop fuel injection," stated the EPA in its original ruling.

As a result, carburettors are likely to be phased out, while a monitoring system checking that the catalytic converter is working must be installed in each exhaust under the new rules.

In addition, the EPA outlined requirements to "control fuel tank permeation, fuel line permeation and diurnal fuel tank vapour emissions, including provisions to ensure that refuelling emissions do not increase".

According to the news provider, the implementation of the catalytic converters - which make use of pgms - will have "benefits" for both boat users and the environment.

"The catalytic converters greatly reduce the danger from CO emissions as they will be so low as to be virtually unnoticeable," it noted.

"By stopping fuel line permeation there should not be any odour of gasoline in a boat and chances of explosion should be reduced. And catalytic converters have been found to improve fuel mileage and horsepower slightly."

Source:

Catalytic converters are coming soon (03/06/09)

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