Diesel fuel () in general is any liquid fuel used in diesel engines. The most common is a specific fractional distillate of petroleum fuel oil, but alternatives that are not derived from petroleum, such as biodiesel, biomass to liquid (BTL) or gas to liquid (GTL) diesel, are increasingly being developed and adopted. To distinguish these types, petroleum-derived diesel is increasingly called petrodiesel. Ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) is a standard for defining diesel fuel with substantially lowered sulfur contents. As of 2007, almost every diesel fuel available in the United States of America, Canada and Europe is the ULSD type.

In the UK, diesel is commonly abbreviated DERV, standing for ''Diesel Engined Road Vehicle'', which carries a tax premium over equivalent fuel not for road use (see Taxation).

History

Etymology

The word "diesel" is derived from the German inventor Rudolf Diesel who in 1892 invented the diesel engine.

Diesel engine

Diesel engines are a type of internal combustion engine. Rudolf Diesel originally designed the diesel engine to use coal dust as a fuel. He also experimented with various oils, including some vegetable oils, such as peanut oil, which was used to power the engines which he exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exposition and the 1911 World's Fair in Paris.

Sources

Diesel fuel is produced from petroleum and from various other sources.

Petroleum diesel

Refining

Petroleum diesel, also called petrodiesel, or fossil diesel is produced from the fractional distillation of crude oil between 200 °C (392 °F) and 350 °C (662 °F) at atmospheric pressure, resulting in a mixture of carbon chains that typically contain between 8 and 21 carbon atoms per molecule.

Fuel value and price

As of 2010, the density of petroleum diesel is about 0.832 kg/l (6.943 lb/US gal), about 12% more than ethanol-free petrol (gasoline), which has a density of about 0.745 kg/l (6.217 lb/US gal). About 86.1% of the fuel mass is carbon, and when burned, it offers a net heating value of 43.1 MJ/kg as opposed to 43.2 MJ/kg for gasoline. However, due to the higher density, diesel offers a higher volumetric energy density at 35.86 MJ/L (128 700 BTU/US gal) vs. 32.18 MJ/L (115 500 BTU/US gal) for gasoline, some 11% higher, which should be considered when comparing the fuel efficiency by volume. The CO₂ emissions from diesel are 73.25 g/MJ, just slightly lower than for gasoline at 73.38 g/MJ. Diesel is generally simpler to refine from petroleum than gasoline, and contains hydrocarbons having a boiling point in the range of 180-360°C (360-680°F). The price of diesel traditionally rises during colder months as demand for heating oil rises, which is refined in much the same way. Because of recent changes in fuel quality regulations, additional refining is required to remove sulfur, which contributes to a sometimes higher cost. In many parts of the United States and throughout the United Kingdom and Australia, diesel may be priced higher than petrol. Reasons for higher-priced diesel include the shutdown of some refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, diversion of mass refining capacity to gasoline production, and a recent transfer to ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD), which causes infrastructural complications. In Sweden, a diesel fuel designated as MK-1 (class 1 environmental diesel) is also being sold; this is a ULSD that also has a lower aromatics content, with a limit of 5%. This fuel is slightly more expensive to produce than regular ULSD.

Use as vehicle fuel

Unlike petroleum ether and liquefied petroleum gas engines, diesel engines do not use high-voltage spark ignition (spark plugs). An engine running on diesel compresses the air inside the cylinder to high pressures and temperatures (compression ratios from 14:1 to 18:1 are common in current diesels); the diesel is generally injected directly into the cylinder, starting a few degrees before top dead center (TDC) and continuing during the combustion event. The high temperatures inside the cylinder cause the diesel fuel to react with the oxygen in the mix (burn or oxidize), heating and expanding the burning mixture to convert the thermal/pressure difference into mechanical work, i.e., to move the piston. (Glow plugs are used to assist starting the engine to preheat cylinders to reach a minimum operating temperature). High compression ratios and throttleless operation generally result in diesel engines being more efficient than many spark-ignited engines.

This efficiency and its lower flammability and explosivity than gasoline are the main reasons for military use of diesel in armored fighting vehicles, such as tanks and trucks. Engines running on diesel also provide more torque, and are less likely to stall, as they are controlled by a mechanical or electronic governor.

A disadvantage of diesel as a vehicle fuel in some climates, compared to gasoline or other petroleum-derived fuels, is that its viscosity increases quickly as the fuel's temperature decreases, turning into a nonflowing gel at temperatures as high as -19 °C (-2.2 °F) or -15 °C (5 °F), which cannot be pumped by regular fuel pumps. Special low-temperature diesel contains additives to keep it in a more liquid state at lower temperatures, yet starting a diesel engine in very cold weather may still pose considerable difficulties.

Another rare disadvantage of diesel engines compared to petrol/gasoline engines is the possibility of runaway failure. Since diesel engines do not require spark ignition, they can sustain operation as long as diesel fuel is supplied. Fuel is typically supplied via a fuel pump. If the pump breaks down in an "open" position, the supply of fuel will be unrestricted, and the engine will runaway and risk terminal failure.

Use as car fuel

Diesel-powered cars generally have a better fuel economy than equivalent gasoline engines and produce less greenhouse gas emission. Their greater economy is due to the higher energy per-litre content of diesel fuel and the intrinsic efficiency of the diesel engine. While petrodiesel's higher density results in higher greenhouse gas emissions per litre compared to gasoline, the 20–40% better fuel economy achieved by modern diesel-engined automobiles offsets the higher per-litre emissions of greenhouse gases, and a diesel-powered vehicle emits 10-20 percent less greenhouse gas than comparable gasoline vehicles. Biodiesel-powered diesel engines offer substantially improved emission reductions compared to petrodiesel or gasoline-powered engines, while retaining most of the fuel economy advantages over conventional gasoline-powered automobiles. However, the increased compression ratios mean there are increased emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) from diesel engines. This is compounded by biological nitrogen in biodiesel to make NO_x emissions the main drawback of diesel versus gasoline engines.

Reduction of sulfur emissions

In the past, diesel fuel contained higher quantities of sulfur. European emission standards and preferential taxation have forced oil refineries to dramatically reduce the level of sulfur in diesel fuels. In the United States, more stringent emission standards have been adopted with the transition to ULSD starting in 2006, and becoming mandatory on June 1, 2010 (see also diesel exhaust). U.S. diesel fuel typically also has a lower cetane number (a measure of ignition quality) than European diesel, resulting in worse cold weather performance and some increase in emissions.

Environment hazards of sulfur

High levels of sulfur in diesel are harmful for the environment because they prevent the use of catalytic diesel particulate filters to control diesel particulate emissions, as well as more advanced technologies, such as nitrogen oxide (NO_x) adsorbers (still under development), to reduce emissions. Moreover, sulfur in the fuel is oxidized during combustion, producing sulfur dioxide and sulfur trioxide, that in presence of water rapidly convert to sulfuric acid, one of the chemical processes that results in acid rain. However, the process for lowering sulfur also reduces the lubricity of the fuel, meaning that additives must be put into the fuel to help lubricate engines. Biodiesel and biodiesel/petrodiesel blends, with their higher lubricity levels, are increasingly being utilized as an alternative. The U.S. annual consumption of diesel fuel in 2006 was about 190 billion litres (42 billion imperial gallons or 50 billion US gallons).

Chemical composition

Petroleum-derived diesel is composed of about 75% saturated hydrocarbons (primarily paraffins including ''n'', ''iso'', and cycloparaffins), and 25% aromatic hydrocarbons (including naphthalenes and alkylbenzenes). The average chemical formula for common diesel fuel is C₁₂H₂₃, ranging approximately from C₁₀H₂₀ to C₁₅H₂₈.

Algae, microbes, and water contamination

There has been much discussion and misunderstanding of algae in diesel fuel. Algae need light to live and grow. As there is no sunlight in a closed fuel tank, no algae can survive, but some microbes can survive and feed on the diesel fuel.

These microbes form a colony that lives at the interface of fuel and water. They grow quite fast in warmer temperatures. They can even grow in cold weather when fuel tank heaters are installed. Parts of the colony can break off and clog the fuel lines and fuel filters.

Road hazard

Petrodiesel spilled on a road will stay there until washed away by sufficiently heavy rain, whereas gasoline will quickly evaporate. After the light fractions have evaporated, a greasy slick is left on the road which can destabilize moving vehicles. Diesel spills severely reduce tire grip and traction, and have been implicated in many accidents. The loss of traction is similar to that encountered on black ice. Diesel slicks are especially dangerous for two-wheeled vehicles such as motorcycles.

Synthetic diesel

Synthetic diesel can be produced from any carbonaceous material, including biomass, biogas, natural gas, coal and many others. The raw material is gasified into synthesis gas, which after purification is converted by the Fischer-Tropsch process to a synthetic diesel.

The process is typically referred to as biomass-to-liquid (BTL), gas-to-liquid (GTL) or coal-to-liquid (CTL), depending on the raw material used.

Paraffinic synthetic diesel generally has a near-zero content of sulfur and very low aromatics content, reducing unregulated emissions of toxic hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides and PM.

FAME

Fatty-acid methyl ester (FAME), perhaps more widely known as biodiesel, is obtained from vegetable oil or animal fats (biolipids) which have been transesterified with methanol. It can be produced from many types of oils, the most common being rapeseed oil (rapeseed methyl ester, RME) in Europe and soybean oil (soy methyl ester, SME) in the USA. Methanol can also be replaced with ethanol for the transesterification process, which results in the production of ethyl esters. The transesterification processes use catalysts, such as sodium or potassium hydroxide, to convert vegetable oil and methanol into FAME and the undesirable byproducts glycerine and water, which will need to be removed from the fuel along with methanol traces. FAME can be used pure (B100) in engines where the manufacturer approves such use, but it is more often used as a mix with diesel, BXX where XX is the biodiesel content in percent.

FAME as a fuel is regulated under DIN EN 14214 and ASTM D6751.

FAME has a lower energy content than diesel due to its oxygen content, and as a result, performance and fuel consumption can be affected. It also can have higher levels of NOx emissions, possibly even exceeding the legal limit. FAME also has lower oxidation stability than diesel, and it offers favorable conditions for bacterial growth, so applications which have a low fuel turnover should not use FAME. The loss in power when using pure biodiesel is 5 to 7%.

Fuel equipment manufacturers (FIE) have raised several concerns regarding FAME fuels: free methanol, dissolved and free water, free glycerin, mono and diglycerides, free fatty acids, total solid impurity levels, alkaline metal compounds in solution and oxidation and thermal stability. They have also identified FAME as being the cause of the following problems: corrosion of fuel injection components, low-pressure fuel system blockage, increased dilution and polymerization of engine sump oil, pump seizures due to high fuel viscosity at low temperature, increased injection pressure, elastomeric seal failures and fuel injector spray blockage.

Unsaturated fatty acids are the source for the lower oxidation stability; they react with oxygen and form peroxides and result in degradation byproducts, which can cause sludge and lacquer in the fuel system.

As FAME contains low levels of sulfur, the emissions of sulfur oxides and sulfates, major components of acid rain, are low. Use of biodiesel also results in reductions of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter. CO emissions using biodiesel are substantially reduced, on the order of 50% compared to most petrodiesel fuels. The exhaust emissions of particulate matter from biodiesel have been found to be 30 percent lower than overall particulate matter emissions from petrodiesel. The exhaust emissions of total hydrocarbons (a contributing factor in the localized formation of smog and ozone) are up to 93 percent lower for biodiesel than diesel fuel.

Biodiesel also may reduce health risks associated with petroleum diesel. Biodiesel emissions showed decreased levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and nitrited PAH compounds, which have been identified as potential cancer-causing compounds. In recent testing, PAH compounds were reduced by 75 to 85 percent, except for benz(a)anthracene, which was reduced by roughly 50 percent. Targeted nPAH compounds were also reduced dramatically with biodiesel fuel, with 2-nitrofluorene and 1-nitropyrene reduced by 90 percent, and the rest of the nPAH compounds reduced to only trace levels.

Hydrogenated oils and fats

This category of diesel fuels involves converting the triglycerides in vegetable oil and animal fats into alkanes by refining and hydrogenation. The produced fuel has many properties that are similar to synthetic diesel, and are free from the many disadvantages of FAME.

DME

Dimethyl ether, DME, is a synthetic, gaseous diesel fuel that results in clean combustion with very little soot and reduced NOx emissions.

Transportation and storage

Diesel fuel is widely used in most types of transportation. The gasoline-powered passenger automobile is the major exception.

Railroad

Diesel displaced coal and fuel oil for steam-powered vehicles in the latter half of the 20th century, and is now used almost exclusively for the combustion engines of self-powered rail vehicles (locomotives and railcars).

Aircraft

The first diesel-powered flight of a fixed-wing aircraft took place on the evening of September 18, 1928, at the Packard Motor Company proving grounds at Utica, USA, with Captain Lionel M. Woolson and Walter Lees at the controls (the first "official" test flight was taken the next morning). The engine was designed for Packard by Woolson, and the aircraft was a Stinson SM1B, X7654. Later that year, Charles Lindbergh flew the same aircraft. In 1929, it was flown nonstop from Detroit to Langley Field, near Norfolk, Virginia. This aircraft is now owned by Greg Herrick, and is at the Golden Wings Flying Museum near Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1931, Walter Lees and Fredrick Brossy set the nonstop flight record flying a Bellanca powered by a Packard diesel for 84 hours and 32 minutes. The Hindenburg rigid airship was powered by four 16-cylinder diesel engines, each with approximately available in bursts, and available for cruising. Modern diesel engines for propellor-driven aircraft are manufactured by Thielert Aircraft Engines and SMA. These engines can run on Jet A fuel, which is similar in composition to automotive diesel, and is cheaper and more plentiful than the 100 octane low-lead gasoline (avgas) used by the majority of the piston-engine aircraft fleet.

The most-produced aviation diesel engine in history has been the Junkers Jumo 205, which, along with its similar developments from the Junkers Motorenwerke, had approximately 1000 examples of the unique opposed piston, two-stroke design power plant built in the 1930s leading into World War II in Germany.

Storage

In the US, diesel is recommended to be stored in a yellow container to differentiate it from kerosene and gasoline, which are typically kept in blue and red containers, respectively.

Other uses

Poor quality (high sulfur) diesel fuel has been used as a palladium extraction agent for the liquid-liquid extraction of this metal from nitric acid mixtures. Such use has been proposed as a means of separating the fission product palladium from PUREX raffinate which comes from used nuclear fuel. In this system of solvent extraction, the hydrocarbons of the diesel act as the diluent while the dialkyl sulfides act as the extractant. This extraction operates by a solvation mechanism. So far, neither a pilot plant nor full scale plant has been constructed to recover palladium, rhodium or ruthenium from nuclear wastes created by the use of nuclear fuel.

Emissions

:''See Diesel exhaust.''

Taxation

Diesel fuel is very similar to heating oil, which is used in central heating. In Europe, the United States, and Canada, taxes on diesel fuel are higher than on heating oil due to the fuel tax, and in those areas, heating oil is marked with fuel dyes and trace chemicals to prevent and detect tax fraud. Similarly, "untaxed" diesel (sometimes called "off-road diesel") is available in some countries for use primarily in agricultural applications, such as fuel for tractors, recreational and utility vehicles or other noncommercial vehicles that do not use public roads. Additionally, this fuel may have sulphur levels that exceed the limits for road use in some countries (e.g. USA).

This untaxed diesel is dyed red for identification, and should a person be found to be using this untaxed diesel fuel for a typically taxed purpose (such as "over-the-road", or driving use), the user can be fined (e.g. US$10,000 in the USA). In the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands, it is known as red diesel (or gas oil), and is also used in agricultural vehicles, home heating tanks, refrigeration units on vans/trucks which contain perishable items such as food and medicine and for marine craft. Diesel fuel, or marked gas oil is dyed green in the Republic of Ireland and Norway. The term "diesel-engined road vehicle" (DERV) is used in the UK as a synonym for unmarked road diesel fuel. In India, taxes on diesel fuel are lower than on petrol, as the majority of the transportation for grains and other essential commodities across the country runs on diesel.

In some countries, such as Germany and Belgium, diesel fuel is taxed lower than petrol (gasoline) (typically around 20% lower), but the annual vehicle tax is higher for diesel vehicles than for petrol vehicles. This gives an advantage to vehicles that travel longer distances (which is the case for trucks and utility vehicles) because the annual vehicle tax depends only on engine displacement, not on distance driven. The point at which a diesel vehicle becomes less expensive than a comparable petro vehicle is around 20,000 km a year (12,500 miles per year) for an average car. However, due to the recent rise in oil prices, the advantage point is becoming lower, resulting in more people opting to buy a diesel car where they would have opted for a gasoline car a few years ago. Such an increased interest in diesel has resulted in slow but steady "dieseling" of the automobile fleet in the countries affected, sparking concerns in certain authorities about the negative effects of diesel.

Taxes on biodiesel in the U.S. vary among states, and in some states (Texas, for example) have no tax on biodiesel and a reduced tax on biodiesel blends equivalent to the amount of biodiesel in the blend, so that B20 fuel is taxed 20% less than pure petrodiesel. Other states, such as North Carolina, tax biodiesel (in any blended configuration) the same as petrodiesel, although they have introduced new incentives to producers and users of all biofuels.

See also

Diesel engine

Diesel automobile racing

Common ethanol fuel mixtures

Kerosene

Liquid fuels

Gasoline gallon equivalent

Hybrid vehicles

Gale Banks

List of diesel automobiles

Turbodiesel

Dieselisation

References

External links

U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration: Safety and Health Topics: Diesel Exhaust

Eight-Year History of Diesel Prices in the U.S.

Category:Petroleum products Category:Liquid fuels Category:Diesel Category:Hydrocarbon solvents Category:German loanwords Category:Diesel engines Category:IARC Group 2B carcinogens

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