Low Sulfur Diesel Requires Improved Lubricity For Engine Performance - Opens New Markets For Fuel Additives
Houston - Department of Energy regulations for sulfur content in diesel fuel were lowered from 5,000 parts per million (PPM) to 500-PPM in 1993. This was to prevent harmful emissions from engines. Now, new regulations state that sulfur in diesel fuel should be lowered to 15-PPM in 2006. Most refineries are in the midst of this conversion, or will be complete in 2006. In most cases, a hydrotreating process unit is added to the refinery to achieve the necessary reduction a cost of billions of dollars to the industry.
The removal process reduces nitrogen and aeromatic compounds, as well as sulfur and its compounds. These components provide lubricating qualities, so that fuel pumps will not fail in diesel engines, and so the nozzles that spray fuel into combustion chambers will not be clogged.
Industry analysts expect a large market for diesel fuel additives will develop in order to overcome difficulties arising due to the increased use of low-sulfur diesel. Industry consensus is that all highway diesel fuel will contain lubricating additives. Diesel trucks and cars annually consume 40 billion gallons of fuel on U.S. highways. The addition of just 100-PPM of a lubricity agent to a gallon presents a 40 million gallon market for chemical suppliers that would be worth millions of dollars (depending on lubricant content and price of lubricant).
The candidate lubricants are mostly based on natural fatty acid derivatives. Synthetic esters are also under consideration, but are more expensive. One fatty acid compound that performs well in engine tests and is readily available is "bio-diesel" - a fatty acid methyl ester. This compound is effective to restore fuel lubricity at a 20,000-PPM level, or 2% content. A variety of fatty acid amides and esters are effective lubricants at a much lower level in the 50 to 500-PPM range It seems doubtful that bio-diesel will capture much of the lubricant business due to high loading requirements and manufacturing capacity restraints. Uniquima and Cognis are making other amides and esters and plan to capture market shares.
The same pipelines that carry diesel fuel from refineries to distribution terminals (called "racks") also carry other fuel, such as gasoline and jet fuels. Many pipeline operators have banned the addition of diesel lubricity additives for fear of contaminating other fuels. There are 2,000 of these terminal operators and they all must add lubricity agents into diesel before it is delivered to customers. There is an apparatus known as "High Frequency Reciprocating Rig" (HFRR) that will indicate how much additive to add in order for the diesel to operate effectively in diesel engines. A terminal operator can independently choose its additive supplier and add the agents to meet fuel standards. This offers marketing opportunities for additive suppliers. The supplier of the HFRR instrument is PCS Instruments, who has already sold 600 instruments at about $50,000 each.
SOURCE: Industrial Information Resources (IIR)