Fuels
When Rudolf Diesel developed the first auto-ignition combustion engine at the close of the nineteenth century, he realized that gasoline’s resistance to auto-ignition made it unsuitable as fuel. Comprehensive tests with various fuels revealed that so-call
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Fuels Gerd Hagenow, Klaus Reders, Hanns - Erhard Heinze, Wolfgang Steiger, Detlef Zigan, and Dirk Mooser
4.1
Automotive Diesel Fuels
4.1.1
Introduction
When Rudolf Diesel developed the first auto-ignition combustion engine at the close of the nineteenth century, he realized that gasoline’s resistance to auto-ignition made it unsuitable as fuel. Comprehensive tests with various fuels revealed that so-called middle distillates were clearly more suitable. These are components that evaporate when crude oil is distilled at higher temperatures than gasoline. Until then, their potential uses had only been limited. In those days, they were typically used as lamp oil and as an additive to city gas, whence the still common designation of middle distillates as ‘‘gas oil’’ originates, which is still a standard customs designation. Despite many technical problems at first, its better efficiency and the initially lower costs of diesel fuel production led to the diesel engine’s commercial success. For a long time, diesel fuel was a byproduct of gasoline production. In principle, auto-igniting engine combustion may employ widely differing fuels, provided they are highly ignitable enough and the engines and fuels are matched to each another (diesel fuels for road engines and residual oils for marine engines). Among other things, increasing demands on operational safety and exhaust and noise emissions have generated additional quality factors for diesel fuel for road vehicles, e.g. – cleanliness, – oxidation stability, – flowability at low temperatures, – lubrication reliability and – low sulfur content. Present day diesel fuels are specified just as precisely and strictly as gasoline. Partially contradictory requirements, e.g. ignition quality and winter capability or lubricity and low sulfur content, increasingly necessitate the use of additives.
H.-E. Heinze (*) Magdeburg, Germany e-mail: [email protected]
Distinctly different fuels are basically used for the many applications for auto-ignition engines in road vehicles, locomotives or ships for economic reasons. Engineering measures can match particular engines to the different fuels. A trend toward maximally standardized fuel is increasingly discernible on the global diesel vehicle market (cars and commercial vehicles). In fact, differences throughout the world are sometimes considerable. Gasoline engines and gasoline continue to have broad influence in the USA. Nonetheless, a trend toward advanced diesel cars and accordingly adapted diesel fuels can even be detected in the USA of late. Unlike gasoline, usually only one grade of diesel fuel was formerly available for road traffic. Diesel fuels of differing grades, e.g. so-called truck diesel or premium diesel, have only recently also started being marketed in some countries with large populations of diesel vehicles. Diesel fuels are still primarily produced from petroleum. Qualitatively high-grade components (with high ignition quality) have also been being produced from natural gas of late. Renewable raw material componen
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