Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel
For years vehicles that were designed to run on diesel for the advantages it would provide had to slowly improve the quality of diesel fuels as more and more attention was paid to environmental issues. The goal was to lower emissions as much as possible without affecting the overall performance of those engines designed to use diesel fuel.
The sound of a diesel engine is pretty recognizable as loud, foul smelling, and just plain uncomfortableto have to sit next to in a traffic jam. The main disadvantage when using a vehicle that uses this type of fuel, as anyone who owns one would tell you, they are not the most reliable to start in very cold weather.
In some cases, todays prices seem to be greater than that of regular high octane gasoline. Most truckers had to face this in the past two years as fuel prices escalated to new highs, and one would have thought that since diesel is so much less refined than gasoline, that it would be cheaper.
Today, diesel fuel has been improved in a way that satisfies some of the requirements of the environmental groups, and help increase power as well. October 15, 2006 was the date that the EPA proposed Ultra-low sulfur diesel as the new standard for sulfur content for diesel fuel sold in the US. California did so a month and a half sooner and Alaska will do the same in 2010.
Sulfur in the fuel acts as a lubricate for the engine's fuel injection systems so as to prevent premature wearing of these systems. By reducing the sulfur content, it reduces the density of the fuel and reduces the energy content as well, and in turn can result in lost peak power and efficiency. However, the difference is almost non detectable.
The lower the sulfur content, the fewer sulfate emissions, which in turn results in less use of emissions reduction equipment that add significantly to the cost of a vehicle such as the catalytic converters and particulate traps.
Although it may cost more than current diesel fuel, it will only average a few cents per gallon, but the benefits are calculated to offset that cost in the long run.The environmental protection agency defines this fuel as such because it is not to exceed 15 parts per million of the sulfur content. Sounds like such a small amount, but none the less is what the EPA determined for the use of sulfur for diesel fuels.
