40 CFR § 1060.525 - How do I test fuel systems for diurnal emissions?
Use the procedures of this section to determine whether your fuel tanks meet diurnal emission standards as specified in § 1060.105.
(a) Use the following procedure to measure diurnal emissions:
(1) Diurnal measurements are based on representative temperature cycles, as follows:
(i) Diurnal fuel temperatures for marine fuel tanks that will be installed in nontrailerable boats must undergo repeat temperature swings of 2.6 °C between nominal values of 27.6 and 30.2 °C.
(ii) Diurnal fuel temperatures for other installed marine fuel tanks must undergo repeat temperature swings of 6.6 °C between nominal values of 25.6 and 32.2 °C.
(iii) For fuel tanks installed in equipment other than marine vessels, the following table specifies a profile of ambient temperatures:
Table 1 to § 1060.525—Diurnal Temperature Profiles for Nonmarine Fuel Tanks
| Time
(hours) |
Ambient
temperature profile ( °C) |
|---|---|
| 0 | 22.2 |
| 1 | 22.5 |
| 2 | 24.2 |
| 3 | 26.8 |
| 4 | 29.6 |
| 5 | 31.9 |
| 6 | 33.9 |
| 7 | 35.1 |
| 8 | 35.4 |
| 9 | 35.6 |
| 10 | 35.3 |
| 11 | 34.5 |
| 12 | 33.2 |
| 13 | 31.4 |
| 14 | 29.7 |
| 15 | 28.2 |
| 16 | 27.2 |
| 17 | 26.1 |
| 18 | 25.1 |
| 19 | 24.3 |
| 20 | 23.7 |
| 21 | 23.3 |
| 22 | 22.9 |
| 23 | 22.6 |
| 24 | 22.2 |
(2) Fill the fuel tank to 40 percent of nominal capacity with the gasoline specified in 40 CFR 1065.710(c) for general testing.
(3) Install a vapor line from any vent ports that would not be sealed in the final in-use configuration. Use a length of vapor line representing the largest inside diameter and shortest length that would be expected with the range of in-use installations for the emission family.
(4) If the fuel tank is equipped with a carbon canister, load the canister with butane or gasoline vapors to its canister working capacity as specified in § 1060.240(e)(2)(i) and attach it to the fuel tank in a way that represents a typical in-use configuration. Purge the canister as follows to prepare for emission measurement:
(i) For marine fuel tanks, perform a single heating and cooling cycle as specified in paragraph (a)(7) of this section without measuring emissions.
(ii) For nonmarine fuel tanks, establish a characteristic purge volume by running an engine with the fuel tank installed to represent an in-use configuration. Measure the volume of air flowing through the canister while the engine operates for 30 minutes over repeat cycles of the appropriate duty cycle used for certifying the engine for exhaust emissions. Set up the loaded canister for testing by purging it with the characteristic purge volume from the engine simulation run.
(5) Stabilize the fuel tank to be within 2.0 °C of the nominal starting temperature specified in paragraph (a)(1) of this section. In the case of marine fuel tanks, install a thermocouple meeting the requirements of 40 CFR 86.107-96(e) in the approximate mid-volume of fuel and record the temperature at the end of the stabilization period to the nearest 0.1 °C. For sealed fuel systems, replace the fuel cap once the fuel reaches equilibrium at the appropriate starting temperature.
(6) Prepare the tank for mass measurement using one of the following procedures:
(i) Place the stabilized fuel tank in a SHED meeting the specifications of 40 CFR 86.107-96(a)(1) that is equipped with a FID analyzer meeting the specifications of 40 CFR 1065.260. Take the following steps in sequence:
(A) Purge the SHED.
(B) Close and seal the SHED.
(C) Zero and span the FID analyzer.
(D) Within ten minutes of sealing the SHED, measure the initial hydrocarbon concentration. This is the start of the sampling period.
(ii) If your testing configuration involves mass emissions at the standard of 2.0 grams or more, you may alternatively place the stabilized fuel tank in any temperature-controlled environment and establish mass emissions as a weight loss relative to a reference fuel tank using the procedure specified in § 1060.520(d) instead of calculating it from changing hydrocarbon concentrations in the SHED.
(7) Control temperatures as follows:
(i) For marine fuel tanks, supply heat to the fuel tank for continuously increasing temperatures such that the fuel reaches the maximum temperature in 8 hours. Set the target temperature by adding the temperature swing specified in paragraph (a)(1) of this section to the recorded starting temperature. Hold the tank for approximately 60 minutes at a temperature no less than 0.1 °C below the target temperature. For example, if the recorded starting fuel temperature for a fuel tank that will be installed in a nontrailerable vessel is 27.1 °C, the target temperature is 29.7 °C and the fuel must be stabilized for 60 minutes with fuel temperatures not falling below 29.6 °C. For EPA testing, fuel temperatures may not go 1.0 °C above the target temperature at any point during the heating or stabilization sequence. Measure the hydrocarbon concentration in the SHED at the end of the high-temperature stabilization period. Calculate the diurnal emissions for this heating period based on the change in hydrocarbon concentration over this sampling period. Allow the fuel temperature to cool sufficiently to stabilize again at the starting temperature without emission sampling. Repeat the heating and measurement sequence for three consecutive days, starting each heating cycle no more than 26 hours after the previous start.
(ii) For nonmarine fuel tanks, follow the air temperature trace from paragraph (a)(1)(iii) of this section for three consecutive 24-hour periods. Measured temperatures must follow the profile with a maximum deviation of 1.7 °C for any hourly measurement and an average temperature deviation not to exceed 1.0 °C, where the average deviation is calculated using the absolute value of each measured deviation. Start measuring emissions when you start the temperature profile. The end of the first, second, and third emission sampling periods must occur 1440±6, 2880±6, and 4320±6 minutes, respectively, after starting the measurement procedure.
(8) Use the highest of the three emission levels to determine whether your fuel tank meets the diurnal emission standard.
(9) For emission control technologies that rely on a sealed fuel system, you may omit the preconditioning steps in paragraph (a)(4) of this section and the last two 24-hour periods of emission measurements in paragraph (a)(7) of this section. For purposes of this paragraph (a), sealed fuel systems include those that rely on pressure-relief valves, limiting flow orifices, bladder fuel tanks, and volume-compensating air bags.
(b) You may subtract your fuel tank's permeation emissions from the measured diurnal emissions if the fuel tank is preconditioned with diurnal test fuel as described in § 1060.520(b) or if you use good engineering judgment to otherwise establish that the fuel tank has stabilized permeation emissions. Measure permeation emissions for subtraction as specified in § 1060.520(c) and (d) before measuring diurnal emissions, except that the permeation measurement must be done with diurnal test fuel at 28±2 °C. Use appropriate units and corrections to subtract the permeation emissions from the fuel tank during the diurnal emission test. You may not subtract a greater mass of emissions under this paragraph (b) than the fuel tank would emit based on meeting the applicable emission standard for permeation.