ARCO TO ANNOUNCE CREATION OF CLEANER-BURNING DIESEL FUEL.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Daily News Staff Writer

In a development that could further scrub deadly pollutants from Southern California's air, Atlantic Richfield Co. is expected to announce today it has created a cleaner-burning diesel fuel.

Preliminary testing found that the new fuel, which Arco calls EC (or emission control) diesel, reduces soot by 15 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 5 percent without compromising fuel economy.

It was developed at ARCO's Engineering & Technology Center in Anaheim during the past year.

Arco will recruit a fleet of trucks and buses to conduct an extensive road test of the fuel, which will be produced in small batches at the company's Carson refinery this spring. The test should start sometime in the summer, said Roger Truitt, president of Arco products, the company's marketing and refining unit.

``We hope people will want to get in on this test. We are confident that our demonstration program will show an immediate and significant reduction in particulates and (nitrogen oxide) emissions from diesel engines,'' he said.

Fine particle pollution, the foul-smelling black clouds belched from diesel powered trucks, buses and automobiles as well as industrial sources, are a bigger health hazard than ozone, the main component of smog. Last year, after a decade-long debate, a panel of state scientists agreed that diesel exhaust poses a serious cancer danger and urged state environmental regulators to initiate steps to protect the public.

Todd Campbell, a policy associate with the West Los Angeles-based Coalition for Clean Air, said the toxic quality of diesel fuel is a concern. And he wants government agencies involved in any test.

``Of course any improvement in fuel reformulation is a step forward. We should really be concerned and start thinking about moving away from petroleum-based fuels and more toward cleaner if not zero-emission fuels like electricity and natural gas,'' he said.

The California Air Resources Board expects 738,900 diesel-powered vehicles on the road in California by 2000. That's only 2 percent of all vehicles, but those diesel engines will produce about 30 percent of the nitrogen oxides and 65 percent of particulates fouling California's air, said board spokesman Allan Hirsch.

``We're very interested in what Arco comes up with. Anything you can do to reduce diesel emissions has a significant beneficial effect,'' he said.

Both the state agency and the South Coast Air Quality Management District are expected to participate in Arco's test. In the late 1980s, Arco developed reformulated gasolines that are in widespread use today and have led to some improvements in the air quality of the state's biggest cities.

EC Diesel will have a higher cetane rating, which is similar to the octane rating of gasoline, and contain less sulfur and aromatics than the diesel used today. Arco officials hope to start production once the demonstration program is completed but that decision will rest with the company's board.

Truitt said it costs about 15 cents a gallon more to make than regular diesel fuel but that production expenses probably would drop when it is made in larger quantities. However, the company also said it would have to make an undetermined investment in its refinery to make the fuel, something that could be a costly proposition. For example, Arco spent about $500 million in upgrades to make the reformulated gasoline in use today.

Reducing the amount of sulfur in diesel could make it possible to fit buses, trucks and cars with new catalytic converters and achieve an even bigger reduction in emissions, Arco officials said.

To that end, Arco is working with Ford Motor Co. and catalytic converter manufacturers to design new engines and converters that will produce even lower emissions with the new fuel.

``This is an important milestone, and Ford . . . is glad to be part of this program,'' said Neil Ressler, chief technical officer and vice president of research and vehicle technology at Ford.