February 26, 2021
The quality of gasoline sold in Iran improved significantly in tests done late last year, showing that gasoline sold as being in keeping with the EU’s Euro-4 standards were met, unlike the year before.
The gasoline tested was bought at random from more than 300 gasoline stations around the country and tested by the Iranian National Standards Organization (INSO).
In tests it conducted in 2019, the gasoline being marketed as in keeping with the Euro-4 standards was shown to be far out of line with the Euro-4 standards, leading to Iran’s refineries being blame for much of the country’s pollution.
But the INSO said the gasoline tested in recent months met all of the EU standards for maximum levels of pollutants.
“Sulfur levels declined compared to 2019. Aromatic compounds, benzene, octane and olefin were at acceptable levels,” Nayereh Pirouzbakht, the head of the INSO said, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
European emission standards are outlined in a series of European Union directives on the progressive introduction of increasingly stringent standards. The Euro-4 standards were made mandatory within the EU in 2005. The EU is now under standards labeled Euro-6 that took effect in 2014.
The Environmental Protection Organization in Tehran said the main hazardous elements in gasoline (aromatic compounds and benzene) in 2019 were tested at 40 percent and 1.4 percent respectively—well above the levels set by the European Union, which were 35 percent and 1 percent.
But in the latest test they decreased to 11.5 percent and 0.48 percent, well within the Euro-4 standards.
Referring to other elements like sulfur (32%), octane (91.5%) and olefin (4%), the INSO chief said they all met the standards.
Gasoline sold in all big cities is compliant with Euro-4 emission standards, Pirouzbakht was quoted as saying.