new delhi delhis pollution burden from industries located in various areas of ncr may reduce soon the supreme court on tuesday directed the central pollution control board to prepare emission standards for sulphur oxides sox and nitrogen oxides nox by june 30 2017 the deadline for industries to adhere to these standards is december 2017 this is going to put an end to pollution from pet coke and furnace oilbottomofthebarrel fuels widely used by industries in ncr experts hopethis is the first time standards for gaseous emissions from industries will be set and are likely to be enforced nationwidepet coke and fo fuels are used by industries in ncr instead of natural gas or diesel because they are far cheaper in fact fo is only marginally better than bitumen in quality but the sulphur content in these fuels is massivebetween 15000 and 23000 ppm for fo and 69000 and 74000 ppm for pet coke petrol or diesel currently used in bsiv vehicles have only 50ppm sulphur in contrast the scmandated environment pollution control authority had raised the issue of largescale illegal use of these fuels even within delhi a 1996 notification of the delhi pollution control committee had mandated the use of only certain fuels in the capital neither fo nor pet coke were on that list epca had also highlighted that indias imports of pet coke were soaring to meet industry needs currently india produces some 1213 million metric tonnes of pet coke but till december 2017 about 11 mt of pet coke had been imported which is more than the total imports of 2016 this when us and china had reduced pet coke consumption drastically epca pointedthe ministry of environment forests and climate change had however opposed a ban on these fuels it had recommended that the use of these fuels be permitted in industries that have emission control mechanisms those that dont have such systems should be given seven months to move to natural gas it said epca had wondered that if there were no standards for sox and nox how could any industry even those with emission control systems meet the norms moefcc had earlier in an affidavit to sc claimed that formation of secondary particles from these fuels was not evident but iitkanpurs source apportionment study released in 2015 pointed that gaseous pollution from various sources often transformed to sulfates and nitrates adding to the pm25 pollution in delhi it also found that industries contributed to 52 of oxides of nox emissions in the cityfor petroleum oil refinery the sox standard is 850 ppm for nox its 350 ppm its a very important development the industry is going to get standards for gaseous pollutants for the first time industries are a significant polluter in ncr and we hope this will minimise the use of dirty fuels said anumita roy chowdhury head of centre for science and environments cleanair campaign