Baltimore Sun: Diesel Fuel Hailed As Big Advance
EPA Chief Calls Ultra-Low Sulfur Fuel The Greatest Achievement Since Unleaded Gasoline
By Michael Dresser
Most of the diesel fuel being produced nationwide is now a low-sulfur variety that will sharply cut pollution by trucks and buses - a change that federal officials are calling the biggest clean-fuel advance since unleaded gasoline.
EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said in a teleconference yesterday that ultra-low sulfur diesel now makes up about 90 percent of the output of U.S. refiners - exceeding the 80 percent standard the industry was required to meet by Sunday.
"This is the single greatest achievement in clean fuel since lead was removed from gasoline 25 years ago," Johnson said. The EPA administrator said the lower-sulfur fuel is expected to cost 3 cents to 5 cents more per gallon.
The fuel is expected to yield an immediate 10 percent cut in soot emissions, even with older vehicles. Officials say greater reductions in emissions will come with the introduction of new diesel technology starting next year.
Beginning next year, engine manufacturers are required to move to a technology that, in combination with the new fuel, is expected to cut particulate emissions by 95 percent. The technology is also expected to cut diesel engines' nitrogen oxide emissions - a significant contributor to Chesapeake Bay pollution - by 25 percent to 50 percent.
Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, said the changes could bring a surge in popularity of diesel-powered cars and small trucks, which now account for 3.6 percent of the U.S. market.
Schaeffer, whose group includes diesel engine manufacturers, refiners and makers of emissions control technology, said an increase in diesel-powered cars could conserve fuel because such engines are 20 percent to 40 percent more fuel-efficient than those that run on gasoline.
The reformulated diesel fuel now flowing through the nation's distribution system contains a maximum of 15 parts per million of sulfur - 97 percent less than the previous standard of 500 parts per million.
Retailers are permitted to sell the older diesel until 2010, and some Maryland truck stop managers said yesterday that they have yet to begin selling ultra-low sulfur diesel, known as ULSD.
Pete Horrigan, president of the Mid-Atlantic Petroleum Distributors Association, said refiners are likely to make a quick transition to exclusive production of the new formula.
"I don't think it's going to be too long before it's the primary fuel," he said. "Logistically, it's a lot easier to handle only one product."
Horrigan said the cost of the new fuel might be higher than the EPA projects. But he said fuel distributors are not fighting the change, which has been in the works since the late 1990s.
"My people are saying, 'We're going to do what we have to do.' It's a good thing for the environment," he said.
Article available at: www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.diesel11oct11,0,3670272.story
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