September 28, 2007 by admin.

American Farm Publications, Inc.

Oct. 1 deadline looms on EPA diesel regulations

9.25.2007

By SUSANNE ZILBERFARB
Special to The Delmarva Farmer

Farmers [in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic area of the US, designated “NEMA” by EPA] with on-farm fuel storage tanks larger than 550 gallons have until Oct. 1 to meet EPA regulations regarding the sulfur content for their off-road diesel or face fines of up to $32,500 per day per violation.

By Oct. 1, the diesel fuel in those tanks must contain 500 parts per million (ppm) or less of sulfur, as part of a national reduction of sulfur in fuel.

The current high sulfur diesel in those off-road tanks may contain from 2,000 to 5,000 ppm sulfur….

Farmers who still have large volumes of high-sulfur diesel can transfer that fuel to their home heating oil tanks, where it is not affected by these regulations, and then blend down the remaining fuel with ULSD….

Further sulfur reductions are set for phase-in beginning June 1, 2010, when the sulfur content for non-road diesel will be further reduced to a maximum of 15 ppm — the current requirement for on-road diesel…. (Full Story)

Posted in Fines & Penalties, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel | Print | No Comments »

September 10, 2007 by admin.

Gulf Daily News

MANAMA [Bahrain]: A senior Bapco official [acting chief executive Abdulkarim Al Sayed] has praised the firm’s staff for their teamwork on efforts in the firm’s Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (LSFO) activities….

The visit coincided with attainment of the peak activities of maintenance work, 2HDU revamp and tie-ins for the Refinery Gas Desulphurisation Project….(Full Story)
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Note by folc.ca: Bahrain presently does not permit storing of sulphur in blocks. That means that the waste-sulphur produced at the Babco refinery at Manama must be sold into the glutted world market.

Posted in World Sulphur Glut, Sulphur Logistics, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel, Sulphur-Related Construction Costs | Print | No Comments »

September 7, 2007 by admin.

Reuters

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The world’s shipping industry needs global regulations that are consistently enforced by the United Nations if it is to cut emissions, the chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping said on Friday.

Public pressure is building for ship owners to curb air pollution and take part in markets in permits to emit sulfur and greenhouse gases.

Shipping accounts for about 10 percent of world sulfur dioxide emissions, a cause of acid rain, and large amounts of toxic nitrous oxide and particulates such as soot…. (Full Story)

Posted in Pollution: Health Issues, Nitrogen-Oxides, Emission Incidents & Issues, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »

September 6, 2007 by admin.

presstelegram.com

Lawsuit filed over port air pollution

Thousands sick after government failed to regulate emissions, group says.

By Kristopher Hanson, Staff writer

LOS ANGELES - A new lawsuit blasts the federal government for failing to regulate diesel ship emissions despite evidence that air pollution around harbor communities is sickening thousands annually.

The suit, filed Wednesday in Washington, D.C., by San Francisco-based Friends of the Earth, accuses the Environmental Protection Agency of repeatedly putting off new pollution controls on oceangoing vessels visiting U.S. seaports….(Full Story)
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folc.ca: At 27,000 parts per million, bunker fuel used by diesel-powered ships contains 1,800 times as much sulphur by volume than does ultra-low-sulphur (ULS) Diesel at 15 parts per million used by highway trucks.

Even Diesel locomotives don’t use ULS Diesel. The sulphur content of Diesel fuel used by locomotives contains upward from 300-500 ppm of sulphur, thereby contributing to sulphur-dioxide-polluted air.

It appears that in effect the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adamantly protects a system for waste-sulphur disposal through dispersion in the environment.

Posted in Community & Industry, Bunker Fuel, Pollution: Health Issues, Emission Incidents & Issues, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »

September 5, 2007 by admin.

landlinemag.com

A federal court has stopped California from enforcing a new fuel standard designed to cut use of bunker fuel from cargo ships as they reach ports in the Golden State….

The Long Beach Press-Telegram reported that bunker fuel contains sulfur content as high as 27,000 parts per million, compared with U.S. diesel limits on cars and trucks of sulfur no higher than 15 parts per million….(Full Story)
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Note by folc.ca: At 27,000 parts per million, bunker fuel used by diesel-powered ships and locomotives contains 1,800 times as much sulphur by volume than does ultra-low-sulphur (ULS) Diesel at 15 parts per million used by highway trucks.
It appears that the [U.S.] EPA adamantly protects a system for waste-sulphur disposal through dispersion in the environment. Why would the EPA do that?

See also:

• California legislation regarding marine diesels and sulfur-containing diesel fuel (Feb. 21, 2007)

Posted in Bunker Fuel, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur Logistics, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel | Print | No Comments »

June 14, 2007 by admin.

‘Gorilla’ revealed

Dallas company plans to build oil refinery
By Josh Verges

ELK POINT [South Dakota] - A Texas energy company looking to build what it calls an environmentally friendly oil refinery outed itself Wednesday as Union County’s “Gorilla” project.

….The project [by Hyperion Resources Inc. of Dallas] would refine 400,000 barrels of oil into low-sulfur gasoline and diesel fuel each day, enough to serve South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska, said Richard Benda, state tourism and development secretary.

The refinery would be the first built in the country since 1976 and comes at a time when politicians are looking to sever the marriage to Middle East oil….

Hyperion plans to pipe in crude oil from Canada, but how they’d do it is uncertain.

A Canadian firm, TransCanada, is planning a pipeline that would move 435,000 barrels of crude oil per day [to] South Dakota by 2009. Trans-Canada spokesman Jeff Rauh said Wednesday that the pipeline is not related to Hyperion, and the two companies have not met….

The refinery would be the “most environmentally sound energy center in the United States,” protecting air and water quality and producing ultra-low sulfur gasoline and diesel, the company said. Water used to cool the plant - reported by project planners to be 12 million gallons daily - would be returned to the Missouri River cleaner than it is extracted, Phillips said…. (Full story, more stories on the same subject)

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Note by folc.ca:
No one in that or in any of the related articles mentioned what will be done with the waste sulphur the new refinery will produce.  Exports of sulphur by the US were 822,000 tonnes in 2004 and are forecasted to increase to 1.5 million tonnes in 2010, while exports of sulphur from Canada to the US were 2.1 million tonnes in 2006 and are forecasted to decrease to 400,000 tonnes in 2020.  The impact of the new refinery on those import and export figures is not reflected in the numbers. (More detailed waste-sulphur market figures — 1.7 MB PPT file)
A barrel of oil has a volume of 159 litres.  The prohibition on storing waste sulphur in blocks in the US dictates that Canadian synthetic crude oil must be shipped after having been desulphurized.  That means that for every barrel of synthetic crude oil shipped to the US roughly 7.95 litres or 16.7 kg of sulphur will be produced and require disposal in Canada.
The shipment of an additional 400,000 bpd to South Dakota will cause 6,678 tonnes of sulphur to be produced in Canada, with the requirement to either sell that daily volume of sulphur into the saturated world market (a clear impossibility) or to store that much additional sulphur each day.  The only other alternative would be to stop the production of synthetic crude oil.  Quite clearly, that won’t happen.

Posted in Emission Incidents & Issues, World Sulphur Glut, Sulphur Logistics, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel | Print | No Comments »

June 1, 2007 by admin.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

EPA Announces Substantial Reductions of Sulphur in Diesel Fuel for Non-Road Diesel EquipmentRefiners will begin producing low-sulfur diesel fuel for use in locomotives, ships, and nonroad equipment (those used in industries such as agriculture and construction). Low-sulfur diesel fuel must meet a 500 parts per million (ppm) sulfur maximum. This is the first step of EPA’s Nonroad Diesel Rule, with the eventual goal of reducing the sulfur level of fuel for these engines to meet an ultra-low standard (15 ppm) to enable new advanced emission-control technologies for engines used in locomotives, ships, and other non-road equipment….

These reductions in NOx [nitrogen oxides] and PM [particulate matter] emissions from non-road diesel engines will provide enormous public health benefits. EPA estimates that by 2030, controlling these emissions would annually prevent 12,000 premature deaths, 8,900 hospitalizations, and one million work days lost. (Full Story)

Posted in Pollution: Health Issues, Community & Industry, Nitrogen-Oxides, Emission Incidents & Issues, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »

April 20, 2007 by admin.

NYMEX

European Gasoil Contracts: Change to Sulfur Specification in January 2008 Due to European Union Directive 1999/32/EC, beginning in January 2008, the sulfur content for European Gasoil will be reduced to 0.1% maximum from the current 0.2% maximum level. Consequently, the Exchange will adjust the sulfur specification to 0.1% maximum beginning in January 2008 for all European Gasoil-related swaps futures contracts listed on the NYMEX ClearPort® platform. (Source — off-site)

Posted in Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel | Print | No Comments »

April 5, 2007 by admin.

Daily Times - Lahore,Pakistan

SINGAPORE: Oil tanker owners are urging the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to lay out a plan by next year for switching all ship engines to use diesel instead of dirty but cheap fuel oil, an industry group said on Wednesday.

As governments worldwide attempt to curb pollution by putting limits on sulphur, the shipping industry which contributes up to 7 percent of airborne sulphur emissions faces a potentially confusing array of disparate national regulations….(Full Story)

Posted in Emission Incidents & Issues, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »

March 23, 2007 by admin.

Press release: K-Line announces shift to Low Sulfur Fuel in the Pacific Northwest

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (”K” Line), one of the world’s largest ocean transportation companies and an industry leader in environmental stewardship, announced that all container vessels in “K” Line’s Pacific Northwest service, calling at Tacoma, WA and Vancouver, B.C. will use low sulfur fuel in auxiliary machinery while the vessels are docked at Pacific Northwest ports. (Full Story)
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Note by folc.ca: It goes without saying that, when in motion, those ships are using highly polluting bunker fuel that contains extremely high levels (20,000 ppm and more) of sulphur. See next article for more on that. The photo (above) and the related story show that K-Lines’ boast, of being “an industry leader in environmental stewardship” is the motivating force for using lower-sulphur fuel in auxiliary engines when in or in the vicinity of ports in the Pacific Northwest, is perhaps justified only when it is being forced through legislation to become environmentally clean.

The California legislation that forces K-Lines to become “an industry leader in environmental stewardship” in the Pacific Northwest came into effect in January 2007.

Posted in Bunker Fuel, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel | Print | No Comments »