95_stroker said:
I question the lubricity statement......................... I'm a farm boy, we buy that stuff in BULK quantities for the farm equipment, between 2500 and 5000 gallons a season. It gets run in some pretty expensive equip. This fuel is up to *****, it just has red dye in it to denote non-tax fuel as far as I know.
Well I did some limited research and my conclusion is that the CARB (California Air Resources Board) has stricter standards in California with regard to diesel formulations. That may be why I made my lubricity statement.
VEHICLE EMISSIONS: DIESEL FUEL EFFECTS
Advances in engine design have produced very large reductions in NOx and PM emissions since the EPA began setting emission standards for diesel engines in 1971. The composition of diesel fuel has had much less influence on emissions, but reformulated diesel fuels have played a small role in achieving needed emissions reductions. The most important fuel parameters in this regard are:
Sulfur The sulfur content of diesel fuel affects PM emissions because some of the sulfur in the fuel is converted to sulfate particles in the exhaust. The fraction converted to PM varies from one engine to another, but reducing sulfur decreases PM linearly in almost all engines. For this reason, the EPA limits the sulfur content of on-road diesel fuel (low sulfur diesel fuel) to 0.05% mass1 (500 ppm) maximum and CARB applies the same limit to all vehicular diesel fuel (on-road and off-road). As a result, the national average sulfur content for low sulfur diesel fuel is between 300 and 350 ppm. At a sulfur level of 300 ppm, sulfate particles comprise about 10% of total PM emissions for an engine emitting 0.1 g PM/bhp-hr.
Cetane Number Increasing the cetane number improves fuel combustion and tends to reduce NOx and PM emissions. NOx seems to be reduced in all engines, while PM10 reductions are more engine-dependent. These cetane number effects also tend to be non-linear in the sense that increasing the cetane number does the most good when starting with a relatively low cetane number fuel.
Density Changes in fuel density affect the energy content of the fuel brought into the engine at a given injector setting. European studies2a indicate that reducing fuel density tends to decrease NOx emissions in older technology engines that cannot compensate for this change. Emissions from modern engines, with electronic injection and computer control, appear to be independent of density.
Aromatics Reducing the aromatics content of diesel fuel reduces NOx and PM10 in some engines. Recent European studies2b indicate that polynucleararomatics content is key to the reduction, and that the concentration of single-ring aromatics is not a factor.
Volatility T95 is the temperature at which 95% of a particular diesel fuel distills in a standardized distillation test (ASTM D 86). Reducing T95 decreases NOx emissions slightly, but increases hydrocarbon and CO emissions. PM10 emissions are unaffected.2c
REFORMULATED DIESEL FUEL
The first environmental regulations governing diesel fuel composition took effect in 1985 in southern California. CARB limited the sulfur content to 0.05% mass because of that region's severe air quality problems.
In October 1993, separate regulations from EPA and CARB took effect. The EPA set a maximum sulfur content of 0.05% mass for on-road diesel fuel, nationwide. CARB applied this same limit to both off-road and on-road (vehicular) diesel fuel. In the other states, the limit on the sulfur content of off-road fuel is the ASTM D 975 limit of 0.5% mass for high sulfur No. 2-D diesel fuel.
CARB also limited the aromatics content of vehicular diesel fuel to 10% volume maximum. Alternative formulations with higher aromatics contents are allowed if they have been demonstrated to achieve the same or lower emissions as a 10% aromatics reference fuel in a standardized engine test. Candidate alternative formulations are characterized by five properties: sulfur content, nitrogen content, aromatics content, polycyclic aromatics content, and cetane number. If the formulation passes the emissions test and receives CARB approval, any fuel manufactured under this alternative formulation must not exceed the sulfur, nitrogen, aromatics, and polycyclic aromatics contents of the candidate formulation and must not have a lower cetane number than the candidate formulation.
More than 20 alternative formulations have been approved by CARB. In fact, at this writing (Spring 1998), most of the diesel fuel sold in California is one of these alternative formulation fuels, rather than fuel with a 10% volume maximum aromatics content.
CARB estimates that the use of reformulated diesel fuel has reduced SO2 emissions by 82%, PM emissions by 25%, and NOx emissions by 7%, relative to the emissions that would have been generated by the continued use of pre-1993 high sulfur diesel fuel.
DIESEL FUEL DYEING
A confusing situation for both refiners and purchasers of diesel fuel has arisen because both the IRS and the EPA require the addition of red dye to certain classes of diesel fuel. However, each agency requires that the dye be added to a different class of fuel, at a different concentration, and for a different reason.
The EPA wants to identify diesel fuel with a high sulfur content in order to ensure that it is not used in on-road vehicles.
The IRS wants to ensure that tax-exempt low sulfur and high sulfur diesel fuel are not used for taxable purposes.
The EPA Requirements Originally, the EPA's low sulfur diesel regulations required the addition of blue dye to noncomplying high sulfur (>0.05% mass) fuels. But after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expressed concerns that blue-dyed diesel fuel might be confused with the most common aviation gasoline, which already was being dyed blue, the EPA changed the dye from blue to red.
The EPA regulations require "visible evidence of the presence of red dye" to identify high sulfur fuels intended for off-road use. In practice, this requires refiners to add a level of red dye that is equivalent to no more than 0.75 pounds/1000 bbl (ptb) of a solid Solvent Red 26 dye standard. Solvent Red 26 was chosen as the standard because it is a unique chemical available in pure form. Diesel fuels are actually dyed with liquid concentrates of Solvent Red 164 because this dye is more fuel soluble and less costly than the standard. Solvent Red 164 is a mixture of isomers that are very similar to Solvent Red 26, except the former incorporates hydrocarbon (alkyl) chains to increase its solubility in petroleum products.
Any red dye observed in the fuel of a vehicle in on-road use triggers a measurement of the fuel's sulfur content. Penalties are assessed based on the actual sulfur content of the fuel, rather than simply on the presence of dye.
The IRS Requirements The IRS regulations require that tax-exempt diesel fuels, both high sulfur and low sulfur, have a minimum level of a Solvent Red 164 dye that is spectrally equivalent to 3.9 ptb of Solvent Red 26 dye standard.
This level of dye is more than five times the amount required by the EPA regulations. The IRS contends that the high dye level is necessary to allow detection of tax evasion even after five-fold dilution of dyed fuel with undyed fuel.
FEDERAL DIESEL FUEL EXCISE TAX
The federal government imposes an excise tax on diesel fuel, currently $0.244 per gallon. However, certain fuel uses are tax-exempt or subject to a reduced rate. These uses include: heating; farming; use by state or local governments or nonprofit educational organizations; and boats engaged in fishing or transportation.
Because Congress believed that there was considerable evasion of this tax, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 changed some of the diesel tax procedures. Briefly, under the new procedures, the tax is levied on diesel fuel removed from a terminal's truck loading rack unless the fuel is dyed.
Dyed diesel fuel may be used only for nontaxable purposes. Anyone who knowingly sells or uses dyed diesel fuel for taxable purposes or who willfully alters the concentration of dye in diesel fuel is subject to a minimum $10 per gallon penalty. The 1993 Act gives the IRS authority to enforce the diesel fuel tax, including the authority to inspect terminals, dyes, dyeing equipment, and fuel storage facilities; and to stop, detain, and inspect vehicles.
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The lengths these people went to save a buck is starting to scare me. First four different tires (all same size) and now this. If it is dyed fuel as I suspect what if any problems might there be with running it? From what I have heard it is the same as the taxed stuff minus the taxes?
