To date, the undesirable characteristics of diesel fuels have largely been dictated by environmental considerations. The European Community pays special attention to environmental issues and regularly tightens the emissions limitations and the chemical composition of diesel fuels.
Since January 2005, diesel fuel producers in Europe have been subject to the requirements of “Euro 4.” It is a legislative regulation that limits the sulfur content of diesel fuel to a ratio of no more than 50 parts per million (PPM). Just four years later in 2009, the diesel fuel requirements were strengthened again with the passage of Euro 5. According to Euro 5, the mass fraction of sulfur in diesel fuel can not exceed 10 PPM. The new regulations also limited the content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to only 2%. Over time, the European Union plans to tighten the requirements of the 95% point of distillation ( “volume recovered”) to between 340 and 350ºS and to improve the cetane number up to between 54 and 58 units. Currently, cetane ratings are normally range between 48 and 49. Fuels that meet these specified requirements are now available in Sweden, the UK, Finland and Germany.
Removing Sulfur compounds from diesel fuel is much more difficult than removing them from gasoline because they are less reactive in the diesel fuels. Hydrotreating is used to provide the desired level of sulfur and performance for diesel fuels.
To achieve “ultra-low” sulfur fuel (at <15 ppm) it is hydrotreated at a weight of 9-10 Mpa and at a temperature of between 315º and 400 ºC. Hydrogen utilization in this process will be very high and the speed of the oil on the cobalt-molybdenum impetuses will be low
After processing, the finished product will obtain the following characteristics:
- weight yield – 97%;
- hydrocarbon gas – 0.7%;
- gasoline – 1.5%;
- sulfide – 2.5%.
There is a shortage of equipment for hydrotreating diesel fuels. GlobeCore produces and distributes the GlobeCore UVR-450/6 which is perfectly suited to clear up and reduce the sulpur content of diesel fuels. Additionally, the UVR-450/6 is utilized for warming oil, gas, lamp oil, and gas condensates. It can recover transformer oil, turbine oil and other industrial oils.
The operation of the UVR-450/6 does not require the constant monitoring by the operator. It can work in automatic programmed and self-loader modes. The Operator is only required to begin the process, stop the process, and to supplant the sorbent when needed.
The UVR-450/6 requires a reduced amount of energy to operate and is the most cost effective diesel fuel processing system on the market today.