EPA Changes Its Rules To Make Alt-Fuel Conversions Easier

By John DeCostanza

John DeCostanza

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4,088 views Apr 12, 2011

2010 Honda Civic GX natural-gas vehicle, Los Angeles, November 2010

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The EPA has announced changes in the way it certifies systems that convert vehicles to run on alternate fuels, including natural gas, propane, alcohol, and electricity. The agency found that it makes sense to treat vehicles differently depending on their ages.

The tampering provisions of clean-air laws have long served as a deterrent to owners doing backyard retrofits to circumvent emissions standards. For example, it's illegal to replace catalytic converters with eliminator pipes to avoid the replacement cost or the perceived power drag of the emissions devices.

That will continue to be illegal, of course. But the EPA's announcement says its changes "will reduce some economic and procedural impediments to clean alternative fuel conversions, while maintaining environmental safeguards to ensure that acceptable emission levels from converted vehicles and engines are sustained."

The Holy Grail of the alt-fuel conversion industry is the EPA certificate of conformity, which distinguishes legitimate converters from the tinkerers.

2009 Ford F-250 Roush LP

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The certificate assures that conversions comply with onboard diagnostic (OBD II) systems and do not produce false check-engine light indicators. If a converted engine retains the ability to run on gasoline, that use must pass muster as well.

The EPA had previously required annual re-certification of conversion systems; that will be abandoned under the new rules.

Three age groups for vehicles have been created: new, intermediate, and vehicles deemed beyond their useful life (roughly 10 years after manufacture). New vehicles will continue to require direct testing, but after that, diagnostic tool and other instrument report data will be accepted for compliance.

The EPA will consider results from three systems in the converted vehicles: exhaust, evaporative, and onboard diagnostics. The agency hopes the rule changes will provide "clear and comprehensive compliance pathways" for converters to secure exemptions from the anti-tampering provisions of the law.

[EPA & Dept. of Energy]

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