Diesel Fuel

diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, combustible liquid used as fuel for diesel engines, ordinarily obtained from fractions of crude oil that are less volatile than the fractions used in gasoline. In diesel engines the fuel is ignited not by a spark, as in gasoline engines, but by the heat of air compressed in the cylinder, with the fuel injected in a spray into the hot compressed air. Diesel fuel releases more energy on combustion than equal volumes of gasoline, so diesel engines generally produce better fuel economy than gasoline engines. In addition, the production of diesel fuel requires fewer refining steps than gasoline, so retail prices of diesel fuel traditionally have been lower than those of gasoline (depending on the location, season, and taxes and regulations). On the other hand, diesel fuel, at least as traditionally formulated, produces greater quantities of certain air pollutants such as sulfur and solid carbon particulates, and the extra refining steps and emission-control mechanisms put into place to reduce those emissions can act to reduce the price advantages of diesel over gasoline. In addition, diesel fuel emits more carbon dioxide per unit than gasoline, offsetting some of its efficiency benefits with its greenhouse gas emissions.

Several grades of diesel fuel are manufactured—for example, “light-middle” and “middle” distillates for high-speed engines with frequent and wide variations in load and speed (such as trucks and automobiles) and “heavy” distillates for low- and medium-speed engines with sustained loads and speeds (such as trains, ships, and stationary engines). Performance criteria are cetane number (a measure of ease of ignition), ease of volatilization, and sulfur content. The highest grades, for automobile and truck engines, are the most volatile, and the lowest grades, for low-speed engines, are the least volatile, leave the most carbon residue, and commonly have the highest sulfur content.

Sulfur is a critical polluting component of diesel and has been the object of much regulation. Traditional “regular” grades of diesel fuel contained as much as 5,000 parts per million (ppm) by weight sulfur. In the 1990s “low sulfur” grades containing no more than 500 ppm sulfur were introduced, and in the following years even lower levels of sulfur were required. Regulations in the United States required that by 2010 diesel fuels sold for highway vehicles be “ultra-low sulfur” (ULSD) grades, containing a maximum of 15 ppm. In the European Union, regulations required that from 2009 diesel fuel sold for road vehicles be only so-called “zero-sulfur,” or “sulfur-free,” diesels, containing no more than 10 ppm. Lower sulfur content reduces emissions of sulfur compounds implicated in acid rain and allows diesel vehicles to be equipped with highly effective emission-control systems that would otherwise be damaged by higher concentrations of sulfur. Heavier grades of diesel fuel, made for use by off-road vehicles, ships and boats, and stationary engines, are generally allowed higher sulfur content, though the trend has been to reduce limits in those grades as well.

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In addition to traditional diesel fuel refined from petroleum, it is possible to produce so-called synthetic diesel, or Fischer-Tropsch diesel, from natural gas, from synthesis gas derived from coal (see coal utilization), or from biogas obtained from biomass. Also, biodiesel, a biofuel, can be made primarily from oily plants such as the soybean or oil palm. These alternative diesel fuels can be blended with traditional diesel fuel or used alone in diesel engines without modification, and they have very low sulfur content. Alternative diesel fuels are often proposed as means to reduce dependence on petroleum and to reduce overall emissions, though only biodiesel can provide a life cycle carbon dioxide benefit.

Seven grades of diesel fuel specified by the American Society of Testing and Materials are shown in the table.