Starting September 1, stricter regulations on the amount of sulfur allowed in gasoline will go into effect, according to the Ministry of Environment and Energy (Minae) along with the Costa Rican Oil Refinery (Recope).

This and other measures announced last week at a press conference are aimed at improving air quality through the use of cleaner fuels. The changes will bring about a slight increase of 2 colones per liter.

The change was made to comply voluntarily with a new standard issued by the Technical Standards Institute of Costa Rica (Inteco), and will be made after Recope complete’s its inventory turnover of the last two months.

With the new regulations, the amount of sulfur allowed in fuels will go from 1,000 parts per million to only 50 parts per million.

Limits will also go into effect on emissions of benzene, aromatics, and olefins. The amount of cetane in diesel will be increased to reduce emissions of gases such as hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO). By increasing cetane, combustion initiates more quickly, allowing the fuel to burn more completely, resulting in a lower emission of polluting gases, said environmental authorities.

Finally, authorities established the tolerance index for polyaromatics at 8 percent by mass – the maximum allowed at the global level.

“With the updating of the quality of the fuels, a further goal of the VII National Energy Plan is achieved, which aims to improve air quality through the use of cleaner fuels that facilitate the incorporation of more efficient and less polluting automotive technologies. This is a further step on the road to the renewal of the automotive fleet and a low emissions development model,” said Deputy Energy Minister Irene Cañas.

Costa Rica has been a leader in fuel quality modifications. The country was one of the first to ban lead in gasoline and now leads the gradual reduction of sulfur in diesel.

About 629 national deaths a year are associated with respiratory diseases caused by poor air quality.

The cost of these deaths and the associated health care costs represents more than 1 percent of the gross domestic product.