Ultra low sulfur diesel

Tippett, T. Knudsen, K. G., and Cooper, B., Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel Catalyst and Process Options, in NPRA Annual Meeting, 1999., Paper 99-06. 

Energy Information Agency. The Transition to Ultra-Low-Sulfur Diesel Fuel Effects on Prices and Supply. Special Report. 2001 May. Available from http //www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ servicerpt/ulsd/pdf/ulsd.pdf. 

Severely hydroprocessed ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel can differ in properties and performance from higher-sulfur-content diesel fuels. Some important differences are described here. 

Severely hydroprocessed ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel has poorer lubricity properties than higher-sulfur-content fuels. Many of the compounds that contribute to providing adequate lubricity have been removed. Metal wear and loss of fuel pump pressure can occur if fuel with poor lubricity is used. 

Conversion of heterocyclic aromatic compounds or other aromatic fuel components to paraffins by hydroprocessing can help increase the cetane number of diesel fuel. Fuel paraffins have significantly higher cetane number values than fuel aromatics. For this reason, the cetane number of ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel will typically be one to five numbers greater than higher-sulfur grade fuels. 

Although hydroprocessing will remove most of the naturally occurring antioxidants contained in fuel, other less stable, more reactive components will also be reduced. As a whole, ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel will be much less prone to color degradation and deposit formation than earlier-era diesel fuels. 

Meanwhile, ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel was introduced at retail pumps in October 2006 in the U.S. New EPA emissions rules will be in effect across America in 2009 requiring that diesel engines meet exacting standards for low air pollution. The new clean diesel fuel eliminates 97% of sulfur... 

Total removal of phosphorus and sulfur would require the use of synthetic base-oils and new additive systems to provide antiwear antioxidation protection. Synthetic base-oil PAOs or esters have high values of viscosity improver VI and low temperature operating properties. The lubricants in diesel engines require a reduction in Ca carbonate-sulfonate concentrations. This may be less of a problem when ultra low sulfur diesel fuel is widely deployed, since a significant part of the requirement for these additives arises from the need to neutralize sulfur oxides from combustion processes. 

So how much investment will be made to process low-sulfur fuels A recent Energy Information Administration (EIA) report estimates that U.S. refiners will invest 6.3-9.3 billion to reach full compliance with the ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) rule through 201 1.33 For Europe, refiners made investments of nearly 22.9 billion from 1997 to 2005 to meet gasoline and diesel specifications. From 2005 to 2015, an additional 9.7-14 billion may be spent on improving the quantity and quality of middle distillates in Europe.15 Thus, considerable investment will be necessary to bring cleaner fuels to market. 

EIA, The Transition to Ultra-low Sulfur Diesel Effects on Process and Supply, May 2001. 

Min W. S., A unique way to make ultra low sulfur diesel, KIChE annual meeting... 

Knudsen, K.G., Cooper, B.H., and Topsoe, H. Catalyst and process technologies for ultra low sulfur diesel. Applied Catalysis. A, General, 1999, 189, 205. 

Meijburg, G. Production of ultra-low-sulfur diesel in hydrocracking with the latest and future generation catalysts. Catalyst Courier, 2001, No. 46, Akzo Nobel. 

Nero, V.P., Decanio, S.J., Rappas, A.S., Levy, R.E., and Lee, F.M. Oxidative process for ultra-low sulfur diesel. Preprints of Papers—American Chemical Society, Division of Petroleum Chemistry, 2002, 47, 41. 

A major challenge even for advanced diesel engines is the array of impending U.S. federal Tier 2 and California LEV II emissions standards. Work is ongoing to achieve these standards and to ensure that the exhaust after-treatment devices required will meet the necessary durability standards. Two things are certain Diesel fuel quality must improve dramatically, at least to the 2006 ultra low sulfur diesel requirements and preferably well beyond, and the cost of a Tier 2 Bin 5 or LEV II compliant diesel system will be substantial, rivaling the cost of hybrid electric gasoline fueled vehicle systems. 

Mei, H Mei, B.W. Yen, T.F. A new method for obtaining ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel via ultrasound assisted oxidative desulfurization. Fuel 2003, 82, 405-414. 

Perez-Cisneros, E.S. Granados-Aguilar, S.A. Huitzil-Melendez, P. Viveros-Garcia, T. Design of a reactive distillation process for ultra-low sulfur diesel production. Comput. Aided Chem. Eng. 2002, 10, 301-306. 

Ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) Biodiesel (FAME) Green diesel... 

Shell Pura Diesel is a market leading ultra low sulfur diesel which, in the year 2000, has already met the known year 2005 emissions standards. 

An EDXRF method similar to ASTM D 4294 is available, but it may not have enough sensitivity to be used for levels in the ultra low sulfur diesel fuels. 

Repeatability and Reproducibility for Ultra-low-sulfur Diesel Cross Check Samples... 

An in-house Found robin study was conducted using the ultra-low-sulfur diesel crosscheck samples from the ASTM D2 study group. Five bench top instruments were used with a different operator for each instrument. Calibration standards from different conunercial sources were used for the calibration of these instruments. There were a total of 8 diesel samples from the crosscheck program. NIST SRM2723a was added to frie 8-sample group so a total of 9 samples were used in the study. Two successive repeat measurements were made for each sample on each analyzer. The measurement results are hsted in Table 6. 

ASTM Interlaboratory Crosscheck Program, Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2004. 

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