royta

I don't know if this has been covered before, but has anybody heard about the proposed lowering of sulfur content in Kalifornia diesel fuel starting in Mid-2006? Here's an article.

The maximum sulfur content would be lowered from 500 ppmw to 15 ppmw. Seems like a BIG change. If they don't do anything about lubricity, can you imagine the injector pump rebuilds that will be taking place?

sandpuller2004

so wouldnt running a blend of BIO help with the lubricity? (is that a word?)

infidel

The lubricity (yes it is a word) issue with sulfur removal methods is well known and has been addressed by the refiners with lubricity additives. In fact by law diesel fuel must contain a certain amount of lubricity. The link you provided even talks about lubricity standards.

Wouldn't do good for repeat customers if the fuel was wrecking pumps now would it?

If you weren't told it was ULS diesel you would never know the difference.

Cowhand

One last time now, so everybody listen close. SULFUR DOES NOT ADD LUBRICITY!

Sulfur is an impurity in crude oil that is removed in the refining process. Hydrodesulfurization removes some of the parrafinics from the feed stream that is eventually refined into diesel. Parrafins are reintroduced when the fuel is blended so that it meets the API standard.

The elemental sulfur recovered in the process is then sold to manufacturers for lots of $$$$$$$

Crude oils with high sulfur contents are called "sour crude", as opposed the middle east "sweet crude" which has a low sulfur content. Domestic (US, Mexico, Venezuela) crude is typically high in sulfur. West coast refiners are are set up to run sour crude as feedstock. Sour crude requires more refining, hence the higher price of fuel on the west coast. ULSD will likely increase the price a few cents, just as reformulated gasoline did a few years back.

East/mideast refiners typically run more sweet crude as a feedstock, it requires less refining and the yeild per barrel of oil is a little higher, hence cheaper price. They are also more dependent on mid-east crude.

royta

Thanks for the clarification. I do have a question though. Remember back in the mid '90's when California changed to the diesel fuel we now use today? I recall the injector pump shops were plenty busy due to o-rings failing on some of the older injector pumps that were not designed to run the fuel. What was that all about? I thought it was due to the low sulfur content.

The red-dyed diesel still had a higher sulfur content, and all the ranch guys (I grew up on a ranch) were running that in their pickups. I'm sure a lot of it had to do with the fact it wasn't taxed for road use, but I also recall them saying they did it to eliminate the extra injector pump wear.

mpfireman

The red dye in fuel is just that, RED DYE> It is used to catch those vehicles that use the highways instead of the farm fields. Oh if you are caught with that red dyed fuel in your truck In Illinois the fine is $1,000 for the First offence, 2nd you would be better off giving them your truck. Remember in Europe they have been running the low sulfur fuel for 10 plus year now. We are just catching up to that standard. And for price, Look for that LOW sulfur fuel to compete with Premium Gas. Diesel is at $ 2.02 down the street from me now. Last wed it was 1.79.

1998.5 Ram QC White
1998 Sunnybrook Fiver 27RKFS unit.

royta

I understand the whole reasoning behind the colored fuel. I just recall seeing CFN or Pacific Pride stations in the rural areas where I grew up with the red dyed diesel also being marked with something indicating it was not low-sulfur fuel. At least I thought I did. I also did a bunch of work for Cross Petroleum in Northern California, and they also said that the red-dyed was a higher sulfur content fuel. At least it started out like that when the original low sulfur fuel came out in the '90's.

infidel

Legally red dyed fuel can be higher sulfur, doesn't mean that it is though.
In most cases nowadays it's the same as on-road fuel.

Begle1

There is a huge benefit to this change. The European Diesel engines, the ones that they put into everything from compacts to SUV's, have issues running on our high sulfur. However, once our Diesel fuel goes down to their standards, it means that their engines can run on our Diesel. This means that Diesel's will begin to be offered in many more cars, due to the fact that they can import their engines from over there. This is why everbody's predicting Diesel cars to make a huge revolution in the next decade.

Or at least that's what I've always heard.

The real revolution, however, is going to be biodiesel and SVO.