Cleaner-Burning Rigs Just Around The Corner
By Vicki Vaughan
This weekend marks the beginning of the end of sooty, smelly diesel smoke belched by big rigs and buses.
On Sunday, a new, nonpolluting diesel fuel will be available at most retail stations across the country. When used in 2007 heavy-duty diesel truck engines, the fuel — ultra-low-sulfur diesel — will burn much cleaner than conventional diesel.
"This is the single greatest achievement in clean fuel since lead was removed from gasoline," Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen Johnson said in a conference call this week.
When ultra-low-sulfur diesel is used in all trucks and buses, diesel emissions are expected to be reduced as much as 95 percent, the environmental group National Resources Defense Council said.
The new fuel is flexible; any older diesel engine can accept it, but it's the only fuel 2007 diesel engines can use. All heavy-duty diesel-powered trucks will be required to use ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel by 2010.
Yet it will take time for the full benefits of the new diesel to be felt. The current fleet of big rigs isn't expected to turn over until about 2030.
"A big rig lasts about 20 years. That's one of diesel's attributes — it's very durable," said Christopher Cashman, a spokesman for the Diesel Technology Forum.
The switch to ultra-low-sulfur diesel is going more smoothly than the chaotic switch to ethanol this year.
San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corp., the nation's biggest refiner, is ready for the switch. It will have ultra-low-sulfur diesel available at all of its company-owned stores by Sunday, spokeswoman Mary Rose Brown said.
San Antonio-based refiner Tesoro Corp., which has a strong retail presence in the West, has been selling ultra-low-sulfur diesel in California for some time because specifications in that state required it.
"We see this as an easy transition," Tesoro spokeswoman Natalie Silva said.
The move to clean diesel fuel doesn't come without cost. The American Petroleum Institute estimates that refiners invested more than $8 billion to produce the fuel. The institute, the oil and gas industry's major trade association, called the switch "the most costly and complex change ever experienced in the U.S. fuels market."
The EPA required refiners and fuel importers to produce ultra-low-sulfur diesel by June 1. Refiners had to greatly lower the sulfur content in fuel, to 15 parts per million from 500 parts per million.
Ultra-low-sulfur diesel must constitute at least 80 percent of the highway diesel fuel that refiners produce, according to EPA regulations.
Some retail locations may not have the new fuel right away.
"It's possible that ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel might not be available initially at every service station or truck stop," the Clean Diesel Fuel Alliance said on its Web site.
Mindy Long, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Truck Stops, said many members are making the switch. "They want to make sure they've gotten everything clean — tanks and nozzles and everything — because after years of use, there's a lot of sulfur in them."
The transition to ultra-low-sulfur diesel presents some challenges for retailers. They will be hit with fines of $32,500 a day for each violation if an EPA check shows they're selling conventional diesel that's mislabeled.
"That's one year's gas profits in one violation," said Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores. "You have to depend on the integrity of the distribution channel."
Some big users of diesel fuel have already made the switch. In San Antonio, VIA Metropolitan Transit has been using the new diesel since February 2005. About 88 percent of VIA's fleet, or 396 buses, use ultra-low-sulfur diesel.
VIA spokeswoman Priscilla Ingle said there hasn't been any added cost.
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