Interesting Reading on UltraLS
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Interesting Reading on UltraLS
Keeping Diesel Clean
Rules for new ultra-low-sulphur fuel have distributors and retailers anxious.
(Courtesy of Michael Hughes' TODAY's NEWS)
By Harold Brubaker,Inquirer Staff Writer
This year's third big change to the formulation of the nation's fuel supply kicks in today.
The first two changes affected gasoline - reducing sulfur content in January and adopting ethanol as an additive in April.
Now it's diesel's turn.
Oil refiners now must take virtually all the sulfur out of most highway diesel fuel to help meet the Environmental Protection Agency's clean-air regulations.
The EPA projects that the new diesel fuel with 15 parts per million of sulfur, down from 500 parts per million, will dramatically cut emissions of nitrogen oxides and other pollutants. While the new fuel will work in all highway diesel engines, heavy-duty truck engines for the 2007 model year - which will have new emissions controls and cost up to $10,000 more than current engines - must burn the new fuel.
Unlike the quick and chaotic switch in April to ethanol for gasoline blending, ultra-low-sulfur diesel is being phased in, allowing what industry officials hope will be a smooth transition. The new diesel regulation allows refiners for the next four years to continue shipping up to 20 percent of the diesel they produce with up to 500 parts per million of sulfur.
Operators of pipeline terminals, where tanker trucks pick up fuel for delivery to retailers, have until Sept. 1 to switch to ultra-low-sulfur diesel. Retailers, who ultimately must meet the 15-parts-per-million standard, have until Oct. 15.
"We're hoping that this is a nonevent," said Al Mannato, fuels-issues manager at the American Petroleum Institute in Washington.
People on the distribution and retail end are not so sure.
"There's a lot of concern about what the next couple of months are going to bring," said John Kulik, executive vice president of the Pennsylvania Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, whose members transport fuel from pipeline terminals to retailers.
No one knows how the commodity markets will price ultra-low-sulfur diesel. Over the last 12 months, the average price of diesel has risen by about a third to $3.11 per gallon in Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs and to $2.81 per gallon in South Jersey, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.
The cost of diesel is a huge concern to the trucking industry. American Trucking Associations, a federation of trucking groups, said the industry was on pace to spend $98.3 billion on fuel this year, $10.6 billion more than in 2005.
In Gulf Coast and New York Harbor spot markets, the premium paid for ultra-low-sulfur diesel has narrowed recently to 1 cent per gallon from as much as 4 cents per gallon, said Brian L. Milne, an editor with DTN, a business-news service.
The U.S. refining industry spent more than $8 billion upgrading plants to meet the technical challenge of producing ultra-low-sulfur diesel. Refiners must actually produce diesel with no more than 8 parts per million of sulfur to get it through the distribution and out the nozzle with no more than 15 parts per million of sulfur.
This is difficult because a single pipeline carries all the fuels an oil refinery makes - such as gasoline, diesel, home-heating oil, and jet fuel - one after another. That creates the potential, for example, for sulfur from home-heating oil, which can have several thousand parts per million, to contaminate the ultra-low-sulfur diesel.
That could happen when ultra-low-sulfur diesel mixes with other products in the pipeline, or it could be caused by a leaking valve, said Jim Scandola, senior manager of transportation for Buckeye Partners L.P. of Emmaus, Pa.
Under the old rules, "if you get a little heating oil in the diesel, you're not going to hurt it that much," Scandola said. With the new rules, "a little bit could really hurt you."
Scandola said Buckeye was adding instruments to the pipeline to track the sulfur content and segregating the new grade of diesel from products that could contaminate it.
The oil pipeline industry has spent more than $300 million to prepare for ultra-low-sulfur diesel, according to Raymond Paul, spokesman for the Association of Oil Pipe Lines.
Distributors and retailers are worried that they will not be able to meet the 15-parts-per-million standard at the nozzle if they get the fuel from the terminal at that level. "It is physically impossible for us to do that," said Dan Gilligan, president of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America.
Retailers will face fines of up to $32,500 per day for each violation if pumps labeled as dispensing ultra-low-sulfur diesel do not meet the standard in spot checks by the EPA.
That has some distributors and retailers quaking.
"Some of us are discussing segregated tank trucks to reduce contamination," said Charles Spinelli of Edward J. Sweeney & Sons Inc. in Vineland. "Expensive, but not at $32,500 per day."
Rules for new ultra-low-sulphur fuel have distributors and retailers anxious.
(Courtesy of Michael Hughes' TODAY's NEWS)
By Harold Brubaker,Inquirer Staff Writer
This year's third big change to the formulation of the nation's fuel supply kicks in today.
The first two changes affected gasoline - reducing sulfur content in January and adopting ethanol as an additive in April.
Now it's diesel's turn.
Oil refiners now must take virtually all the sulfur out of most highway diesel fuel to help meet the Environmental Protection Agency's clean-air regulations.
The EPA projects that the new diesel fuel with 15 parts per million of sulfur, down from 500 parts per million, will dramatically cut emissions of nitrogen oxides and other pollutants. While the new fuel will work in all highway diesel engines, heavy-duty truck engines for the 2007 model year - which will have new emissions controls and cost up to $10,000 more than current engines - must burn the new fuel.
Unlike the quick and chaotic switch in April to ethanol for gasoline blending, ultra-low-sulfur diesel is being phased in, allowing what industry officials hope will be a smooth transition. The new diesel regulation allows refiners for the next four years to continue shipping up to 20 percent of the diesel they produce with up to 500 parts per million of sulfur.
Operators of pipeline terminals, where tanker trucks pick up fuel for delivery to retailers, have until Sept. 1 to switch to ultra-low-sulfur diesel. Retailers, who ultimately must meet the 15-parts-per-million standard, have until Oct. 15.
"We're hoping that this is a nonevent," said Al Mannato, fuels-issues manager at the American Petroleum Institute in Washington.
People on the distribution and retail end are not so sure.
"There's a lot of concern about what the next couple of months are going to bring," said John Kulik, executive vice president of the Pennsylvania Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, whose members transport fuel from pipeline terminals to retailers.
No one knows how the commodity markets will price ultra-low-sulfur diesel. Over the last 12 months, the average price of diesel has risen by about a third to $3.11 per gallon in Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs and to $2.81 per gallon in South Jersey, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.
The cost of diesel is a huge concern to the trucking industry. American Trucking Associations, a federation of trucking groups, said the industry was on pace to spend $98.3 billion on fuel this year, $10.6 billion more than in 2005.
In Gulf Coast and New York Harbor spot markets, the premium paid for ultra-low-sulfur diesel has narrowed recently to 1 cent per gallon from as much as 4 cents per gallon, said Brian L. Milne, an editor with DTN, a business-news service.
The U.S. refining industry spent more than $8 billion upgrading plants to meet the technical challenge of producing ultra-low-sulfur diesel. Refiners must actually produce diesel with no more than 8 parts per million of sulfur to get it through the distribution and out the nozzle with no more than 15 parts per million of sulfur.
This is difficult because a single pipeline carries all the fuels an oil refinery makes - such as gasoline, diesel, home-heating oil, and jet fuel - one after another. That creates the potential, for example, for sulfur from home-heating oil, which can have several thousand parts per million, to contaminate the ultra-low-sulfur diesel.
That could happen when ultra-low-sulfur diesel mixes with other products in the pipeline, or it could be caused by a leaking valve, said Jim Scandola, senior manager of transportation for Buckeye Partners L.P. of Emmaus, Pa.
Under the old rules, "if you get a little heating oil in the diesel, you're not going to hurt it that much," Scandola said. With the new rules, "a little bit could really hurt you."
Scandola said Buckeye was adding instruments to the pipeline to track the sulfur content and segregating the new grade of diesel from products that could contaminate it.
The oil pipeline industry has spent more than $300 million to prepare for ultra-low-sulfur diesel, according to Raymond Paul, spokesman for the Association of Oil Pipe Lines.
Distributors and retailers are worried that they will not be able to meet the 15-parts-per-million standard at the nozzle if they get the fuel from the terminal at that level. "It is physically impossible for us to do that," said Dan Gilligan, president of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America.
Retailers will face fines of up to $32,500 per day for each violation if pumps labeled as dispensing ultra-low-sulfur diesel do not meet the standard in spot checks by the EPA.
That has some distributors and retailers quaking.
"Some of us are discussing segregated tank trucks to reduce contamination," said Charles Spinelli of Edward J. Sweeney & Sons Inc. in Vineland. "Expensive, but not at $32,500 per day."
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the new EPA crap increases the cost of a diesel truck $10,000!!!!!
I swear the US is trying to rid the damn market of diesel all together instead of embracing them like Europe. Do they not realize small diesel cars have the capability to have a higher MPG than gasoline cars. Just look a the old diesel rabbits and jetta's. those things got 50mpg in the 70's and 80's
who lost that technology?
Higgins
I swear the US is trying to rid the damn market of diesel all together instead of embracing them like Europe. Do they not realize small diesel cars have the capability to have a higher MPG than gasoline cars. Just look a the old diesel rabbits and jetta's. those things got 50mpg in the 70's and 80's
who lost that technology?
Higgins
Last edited by bhiggins; Jun 7, 2006 at 07:22 AM.
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