March 23, 2007 by Walter Schneider.

A study finds that while land vehicles are cutting emissions, seafaring vessels are spewing sulfur oxide ‘virtually unchecked.’

By Janet Wilson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Ocean-going vessels produce greater quantities of sulfur oxide air pollutants than all the world’s cars, trucks and buses combined, according to a study released Thursday.

The report by the International Council on Clean Transportation calls for international regulators to move aggressively to curb emissions from “bunker fuel” used by freight vessels that contains an average 27,000 parts per million of sulfur. U.S. standards for diesel trucks and other vehicles limit sulfur fuels to just 15 parts per million to protect public health. One kind of sulfur oxide, sulfur dioxide, can quickly kill if too much is inhaled rapidly. Chronic exposure to lower levels has been linked to respiratory problems. (Full Story)
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Note by folc.ca: The article constitutes somewhat shoddy journalism. Diesel locomotives use bunker fuel, too.

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

March 15, 2007 by Walter Schneider.

http://www.portworld.com; 15 Mar 2007, 14:43 GMT

The public sector and several service companies operating vessels in the port of Rotterdam have expressed a joint intention to switch to low-sulphur fuel for their vessels within the foreseeable future.

The fuel involved is EN 590, which is used in trucks and has less than 10 parts per million (ppm) of sulphur, the Port of Rotterdam Authority (PoR) announced today.

At the moment, 2,000 ppm is the legal upper limit for fuel used by inland shipping….(Full Story)

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

February 26, 2007 by Walter Schneider.

Pambazuka News; 2007-02-22

A UN agency on environment has recommended phasing out of high sulphur diesel in Kenya to reduce air pollution. The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV) says use of high sulphur diesel is contributing to environmental degradation. (Source: Daily Nation)

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

February 21, 2007 by Walter Schneider.

NEP&I (North of England P&I Club, marine insurance mutuals), Dec. 22, 2006

Emission Limits and Requirements for Auxiliary Diesel Engines and Diesel Electric Engines within Californian Waters

From the 1st of January 2007 all ocean going vessels calling at California ports will have to ensure that auxiliary engines and all diesel electric engines are operating with gas oil or diesel with a maximum sulphur content of 0.5% when within 24 nautical miles from the Californian baseline. [That equates to a sulphur content of 20,000 ppm by weight. — ed. *]

Owners and Operators who’s vessels exceed this limit may be prosecuted under California’s Health and Safety Law….

From 2010 vessels will require to use marine gas oil with a maximum sulphur content of 0.1%. (Full Story)

Update 2007 11 08 by folc.ca: In September of 2007 the US Federal Government nixed this California legislation. It is curious that the driving force for that was the US Environment Protection Agency.

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*See also: REGULATIONS FOR AUXILIARY DIESEL ENGINES AND DIESEL-ELECTRIC ENGINES OPERATED ON OCEAN-GOING VESSELS WITHIN CALIFORNIA WATERS AND 24 NAUTICAL MILES OF THE CALIFORNIA BASELINE (39 kB PDF file)

Without a doubt, marine diesel fuel is a concern with respect to air pollution, as shown in the photo (at right) of the diesel-exhaust plume (visible in the lower right of the photo) laid down by the cruise ship Norwegian Wind on a tour to Alaska (June 8, 2006, near Haines, Alaska).

Obviously the emission reduction targets set by the California regulation are no more than a pittance in the fight to curb SO₂ emissions from bunker fuel. All that the California regulations achieve is to set the limit for the sulphur content in marine bunker fuel to be no higher than 1,333 times than that in ultra-low-sulphur diesel. (Some marine bunker fuels can contain as much as 1.5% sulphur in designated areas, while the sulphur content of some No. 6 bunker fuels can be as high 6%.) Even the 2010 target limit for sulphur content in marine bunker fuel will still permit marine bunker fuel to have a sulphur content that is 267 times higher than the 15 ppm in ultra-low-sulphur diesel, but that will be a considerably more effective restriction.

It must therefore be concluded that marine diesel or bunker fuel is until then a convenient vehicle for the disposal of waste sulphur on a very large scale by spewing it into the environment in the form of SO₂. Marine diesel exhaust plumes are loaded with SO₂; and the one shown in the photo is from just a single ship. A number of cruise ships travel this route each day during the tourist season. Although tourism is vital to Alaska’s economy, that makes it far from being environmentally friendly.

Well, at least Californians now have the benefit of the illusion that something effective is being done to curb air pollution caused by ships.

Nevertheless, the sulphur-content restrictions for marine bunker fuel in California and other localities will increase the world’s waste-sulphur inventory and the waste-sulphur storage requirements in the US. The world market for waste sulphur is already seriously glutted, and the tightening emission restrictions on SO₂ will increase the severity of that glut. That decreases the market potential for Alberta waste sulphur. The question now is by how much the California regulations and those in other localities increase the likelihood that waste sulphur will be stored at the proposed sulphur storage and handling facility in the County of Lamont.

See also: Europe likely to slash Marine sulfur, emissions

One recent study for the EC [European Commission] found that ship-borne sulfur dioxide [SO₂] emissions will account for at least 30% of all airborne SO₂ in Europe by 2010 (see Diesel Fuel News 11/27/2000, p2). But updated forecasts indicate that marine SO₂ could rise to the equivalent of 75-100% of all Europe’s land-based SO₂ emissions by 2010, Robinson said….Sweden, Belgium and France already ban the sale of higher-sulfur marine gasoil….

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

December 21, 2006 by Walter Schneider.

Exxon Mobil and China Petroleum & Chemical, or Sinopec, will likely benefit from demand for cleaner burning fuel in Vietnam after the country cuts the amount of sulfur allowed in diesel, analysts said.

Vietnam National Petroleum and Saigon Petroleum will have to pay more for diesel imports after the acceptable level of sulfur, a pollutant, was reduced by half to 0.25 percent. *

Full Story at THANHNIENNEWS.com

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* Note by folc.ca: That will be a reduction to 400 ppm compared to the new North-American standard for ultra-low-sulphur diesel of 15 ppm. Obviously Exxon Mobil and Sinopec find it is a lot cheaper for them to dispose of their waste sulphur through polluting the Vietnamese environment with SO2 emissions than to clean up their act.
The downside of that news item of course is that a lot more waste sulphur will be added to the world’s excess waste sulphur inventory, thereby lessening the market potential for Alberta’s waste sulphur and increasing the probability that waste sulphur will be stored in Lamont County.

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

November 30, 2006 by Walter Schneider.

The Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association/Illinois Association of Convenience Stores (IPMA) addresses common misconceptions about ultra-low sulfur diesel. (Full Story)

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

November 24, 2006 by Walter Schneider.

Source (off-site)

French engineering and construction services company Technip has been awarded a contract worth approximately €67 million by PKN Orlen S.A. for the construction of a new diesel oil hydrodesulphurization unit in its refinery in Plock, in the center of Poland.

Hydrodesulphurization is a catalytic refining technology consisting in extracting sulphur contained in a petroleum product either to protect downstream unit catalysts or to maintain sulphur content at the level prescribed by the European norm intended to reduce transportation-related air pollution.

Technip’s operations and engineering center in Rome, Italy, will execute the project. The construction of the unit is scheduled to be completed in June 2009.
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Note by folc.ca: The story would have been much more informative if it had addressed how much waste sulphur will be produced by the process and what will be done with that waste sulphur.
That issue will greatly interest anyone wishing to make a living from selling sulphur produced by large desulpurization projects.

Posted in World Sulphur Glut, Sulphur Logistics, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel, Hydrogen-Sulphide, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »

April 29, 2006 by Walter Schneider.

Judy Monchuk
The Canadian Press

Saturday, April 29, 2006

CREDIT: Larry MacDougal, Canadian Press
PRESIDENT: Clive Mather, president and CEO of Shell Canada, talks to the media after the company’s annual general meeting in Calgary on Friday.

CALGARY - Shell Canada Ltd. (TSX:SHC) is reassessing projected costs of its oilsands development to account for labour shortages and soaring expenses in Alberta’s booming economy, the energy giant’s president said Friday….

Shell had two major projects come on stream earlier this year: upgrades to refineries in Montreal and on the outskirts of Edmonton which will process ultra low-sulphur diesel….(Full Story — off-site)
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Note by folc.ca: Rising constructions costs are not all that plagues Shell and other oil producers.
“Ultra low-sulphur diesel” (ULSD) means more stringent removal of sulphur. That is about a 97% reduction of the sulphur contained in low-sulphur diesel (LSD). The very large reduction in sulphur content is based on the latest US EPA standard. (LSD sulphur content is 500ppm vs. a ULSD sulphur content of 15ppm)* The new standard has been adhered to for a number of years in countries other than Canada. Tarsands crude contains about 5 percent sulphur by mass (about 5.7kg per barrel), of which virtually all must be stripped before fuel produced from bitumen may be put on the market. Where will all of that waste sulphur go in a saturated world market? Will HAZCO dump it into the County of Lamont?

Tarsands oil production was 550,000 bpd in 1995, increased to 1.1 million bpd by 2004 and is expected to rise to 5 million bpd by 2030. We can therefore expect that the Tarsands oil producers will be looking for space to store the major portion of 28,500 tonnes of waste sulphur that will by that time be produced each day.

* Ultra-low sulfur diesel and the new 2006 US EPA regulations
(Canada will follow suit in about 2007)

Total sulphur consumption in the whole world is presently at about 60 million tons each year and not expected to rise much, if at all. By 2001 the world total sulphur inventory (stored waste sulphur) was close to 30 million tons and increasing at the rate of about 11 percent per year. At that rate of growth it will reach 220 million tons by 2030. (Source: Sulphur Surplus in the Making Impacts Refineries (2003), by R.J. Morris, The [US] Sulphur Institute)

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