Times-Dispatch: Diesel-Fuel Rules About To Change
EPA Chief: Lowering Of Sulfur The Best Clean-Fuel Move Since Lead Removal
By Greg Edwards
Black smoke belching from a tractor-trailer is not an uncommon sight on Virginia highways, but change is on the way.
On Sunday, most diesel fuel for trucks and buses nationwide must have a sulfur content of 15 parts per million or less. That is equivalent to an ounce of sulfur in a 7,500-gallon tanker truck full of fuel.
The new fuel contains 97 percent less sulfur than the fuel in use since 1993, which contains more than 2 pounds of sulfur per truckload.
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson described the new fuel yesterday as the greatest single achievement in clean fuel since lead was removed from gasoline more than 25 years ago.
The switch now to ultra-low sulfur diesel was mandated by the EPA in 2001.
The fuel's phase-in for off-road diesel engines in farm and construction machinery will begin in 2010 and for locomotive and marine engines in 2012.
In the new engines required in trucks and buses with the 2007 model year, the new fuel is expected to reduce vehicle soot emissions by 98 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 50 percent.
Ultra-low sulfur diesel contains roughly 1 percent less energy than today's standard diesel fuel. However, because diesel engines are 20 percent to 40 percent more fuel efficient and get better mileage than gasoline vehicles, clean diesel engines could gain popularity with consumers. By 2009, the same emission standards that apply to automotive gasoline engines will apply to diesel vehicles.
Researchers at J.D. Power and Associates have projected that the diesel share of U.S. passenger vehicles will triple to more than 10 percent by the middle of the next decade.
The Diesel Technology Forum, a coalition of manufacturers, said it would take 60 diesel trucks built in 2007 to equal the soot emissions of one truck built in 1988.
Article available at: www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite
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