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Dutch IGCC pioneers chalk up pain and gain Emergency response is behind schedule in the European public sector A new refining industry in Europe's Asian Corridor Commission proposes milestone energy proposal Replace fuel oil with distillate? Cancelled projects will sustain margins “Marine distillate not fuel oil from 2010” Branson's biofuels megastore You heard it here first: refinery CO2 storage a reality in Norway Buncefield 2: Investigation critical Where now for Swedish Class 1 diesel My slow awakening to climate change The luckiest motorist alive Safety row goes on over Europe's largest LNG terminal New WHO guidelines on city air quality put focus on diesel Would LNG really 'evaporate harmlessly' in an accident? Another lesson in the thermobaric bomb Spare a thought for the oil-rich But will the good times keep on rolling? Carbon storage and the zero emissions refinery Everything just changed E85 and high octane gasolines The problem of small-minded young engineers New Permit Regulations Biodiesel newbuilds and a new green superfuel Spilled wine and our split industry Drilling down into the prospects for IGCC The beginning of the start of the end of oil | Where now for Europe’s cleanest-burning diesel? Now that there are large quantities of sulphur-free diesel on the European market, how much sense does it make that Sweden continues to insist on its own gold-plated environmental distillate quality with max 5% aromatics? Not much, says Norwegian oil company, Statoil, which makes so-called Swedish MK1 (Environment Class 1) diesel at its Kalundborg refinery in Denmark. It has been looking at how to address the growth in diesel demand in Sweden and has responded by launching a lobbying operation to sideline the world’s cleanest burning, molecularly exclusive diesel fuel. Statoil say that swift market growth has been responsible for MK1 product shortages on several occasions and, with strong sales of diesel cars expected this year supported by climate change policies, it says that the situation will only get worse. Since only five European refineries – all in Scandinavia – currently manufacture MK1, the growing number of Swedes choosing diesel cars can expect high prices in a constrained market, the company claims. Thanks to recent European energy taxation rules, Sweden has the right to impose additional tax (in this case 57 öre per litre or US$ 30c per US gallon) on fuels that don’t match the strict MK1 specification – as long as it can show an environmental benefit. Statoil claims that at tax parity, the 10ppm sulphur Fuels Directive diesel would be 30 öre a litre (16c per gallon) cheaper. Sulphur-free ‘Europadiesel’, as its becoming known in Sweden, has been the standard grade in Germany since 2003 and more recently in all Sweden’s Scandinavian neighbours from Estonia to Denmark and The Netherlands. Statoil says MK1 has become an anachronism. When it was introduced it contained a hundredth of the sulphur of existing diesels. Statoil contends that MK1’s low polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon content was appropriate to old technology vehicles but today, it says, modern engines don’t need MK1 because it essentially makes no difference once particulate matter traps are employed to treat vehicle exhaust. Driving home its point, Statoil claims that the less dense MK1 reduces miles per gallon by 3% and, perhaps most significantly, that the dearomatisation process stage increases carbon dioxide emissions by 10% at the refinery. It draws this claim from Concawe figures showing the emissions effect to be expected if European refiners were to produce MK1. Statoil says it doesn’t want MK1 removed from the market. It just wants to be able to offer customers a cheaper alternative. It argues that, since MK1’s future looks (to it) precarious, a 500m Kronor (US $68m) project to build new capacity for hydrogen and dearomatisation can’t be justified – especially when it would be at odds with its own internal greenhouse gas reduction target of 20% by 2010. Analaysis: Man, what a dilemma. Last month I woke up to climate change as a global emergency. This month I apparently have to decide between clean air, on the one hand, and reducing CO2 on the other. And unecessary? Uncompetitive? This is brutal treatment indeed for a fuel Sweden felt led the world. A Polish reader alerted me to this debate and asked me to comment, so here are some points I’d offer. 1) The claim that new technology means aromatics are no longer a problem should be dismissed. The overwhelming majority of diesel vehicles actually on the road have no aftertreatment. Change is now coming, but why change the fuel until they are off the road, say in 2015? With 350,000 premature deaths annually in Europe attributable to particulate matter in the atmosphere, and diesel aromatic levels implicated at least partly in that, why would you? 2) Yes, the MK1 market is tight and a fire and an outage last year made that even worse. But, at a certain tipping point, Holborn refinery (currently for sale) or perhaps even BP Gelsenkirchen, both in Germany, will want to sell diesel to Sweden. Porvoo is reckoned to be able to maker more MK1 and Preems says it will build reserves. Statoil sells somewhere over 700,000t of MK1 a year in Sweden and can make about half that amount at Kalundborg, by the way. 3) Part of Statoil’s hesitation in investing in more dearomatisation/hydrogen is that it says upwards harmonisation of aromatics levels in Europe is inevitable. Not so, says the Swedish government. Head of Section at the Swedish Sustainability Ministry, Martin Larsson:“Several Member States, among them Sweden, feel that aromatics should be reduced across Europe and have said so in the expert panels in the current review of the Fuels Directive. We will see in the Autumn whether or not Europe will adopt the aromatics levels in current Swedish fuel.” 4) The climate aspect is where Statoil’s argument is strongest – indeed it may well be decisive in the future of low aromatics fuels in Europe. Statoil should run its own LP on the CO2 effects, rather than relying on Concawe’s extrapolations, which in the case of European sulphur level reductions were overstated. Preem says its calculations show 3-5% more CO2 due to the increased hydrogen (the dearomatisation is exothermic) and 1.5% more CO2 in-use. 5) Finland dropped its limit of 20% aromatics when the market went over to the European sulphur-free standard recently. European zero sulphur EN590 typically has about 22-25% in the pump. Car makers want 15% in their Worldwide Fuel Charter. Sweden wants to keep its 5%. Let’s wrap it up. Statoil’s wrong that there’s no case for low aromatic fuels on health grounds and right that an environmental classification system should include greenhouse gas effects. MK1 is more CO2 intensive. However, seen globally, there’s an even larger climate problem that diesel fuel is not publicly accepted in the US because of the negative health effects of particle emissions. For climate change reasons, the diesel hybrid passenger car must come to the US and Ford will develop it at its new global hybrid technology centre in the Swedish second city of Gothenburg. Sweden would be wise therefore to stand its ground as a global clean diesel leader. If you consider that MK1 is a diesel with added hydrogen, then it’s interesting to note how tough it’s going to be to take even small steps towards the hydrogen economy. Perhaps Kalundborg could show us all the way, and make the incremental clean burning hydrogen using Denmark’s world-leading and renewable offshore windpower. | |||||||
Download Energy Industry Resumé with work samples Profile: Tim Lloyd Wright MA Here you'll find a brief profile of my work with international energy, transport and associated environmental issues. Energy trends articles You heard it here first: refinery CO2 storage a reality in Norway From the archive... Over-processed fuel leaves oil tankers adrift | ||||||||
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