Here are five things about diesel fuel and the diesel fuel additives that are used to cure it that you might not know about. These are the items that we like to refer to as “the things you never knew you didn’t know.”
Diesel vehicles might not be as popular, but they are definitely hipper than they used to be because to technological advancements in diesel fuel additives.
Although none of the major automakers have completely abandoned production of diesel vehicles, recent trends indicate that they are being phased out. One contributor to this problem is the fact that automobile manufacturers would rather not comply with the stricter emissions requirements imposed by the government. A portion of this can be attributed to a purposeful shift in emphasis on hybrids.
The outdated image of a diesel engine with black smoke pouring out of the exhaust of a large truck is mostly a thing of the past thanks in part to the implementation of these rules. Diesel automobiles of today look just as attractive as their gasoline-powered predecessors, and they deliver the same level of performance. Long, long gone is the picture of the loud diesel engine with smoke billowing out of the back of the vehicle. But one benefit of driving a diesel vehicle that hasn’t entirely disappeared yet is the excellent fuel economy of at least 50 miles per gallon.
These days, diesel engines are far less polluting than they were in the past.
The picture of a diesel engine blowing black smoke into the atmosphere is a thing of the past, as we have just mentioned. To be fair, there may still be some old smoking diesels that were produced before the new regulations, but there are fewer and fewer of them as time goes on since they are being phased out. In the last ten to twenty years, the government has mandated that manufacturers of diesel engines install specialized emissions control technology. This equipment has made a significant contribution to the cleaning of the air by preventing diesel fuel contaminants from entering the environment. The black smoke that was previously released into the atmosphere is now captured by particulate traps and filters that are standard equipment in all diesel engines manufactured today. Not to mention the fact that diesel engines themselves are becoming more efficient and are continuously undergoing development, such as with the brand new “common rail diesel engines” that they are producing.
How to Determine Which Diesel Fuel Additive Will Work Best for You
Because diesel fuel and diesel fuel additives have more properties that need to be protected, diesel fuel and diesel fuel additives have a greater need for additives than gasoline does.
If you look at the ASTM specification sheet for gasoline and diesel, which lists all of the properties of each, you’ll notice that diesel appears to have more properties that require protection from additives. There are currently a greater number of diesel fuel additives available on the market. These diesel fuel additives come in the form of multi-functional additives as well as single-function treatments, both of which are required to be utilized by fuel suppliers in order to ensure that the diesel they are supplying operates in accordance with the standards set forth by law. Diesel is a heavier fuel, and as a result, it is more prone to going “off-spec,” whereas gasoline is more highly refined. This may be at least partially due to the fact that gasoline is more highly refined. Lubricity, cetane rating, cold weather performance, and stability are all essential properties that need to be protected by additives. However, gasoline typically does not have too much of an issue with any of these characteristics on its own.
Because diesel fuel is more likely to be stored, it also seems to have more problems (including microbial problems). Diesel fuel also seems to have more problems.
Diesel fuel is the fuel of choice in industry, and the ability to store fuels for later use is critical to the success of businesses. As a result, a diesel fuel storage tank is more likely to be kept around for several weeks or months than a gasoline fuel storage tank is. If you keep diesel around for a longer period of time, there is a greater chance that it will develop problems that will affect both its own quality and the performance of the engines in which it is used. This is the reason why the fuel needs to be protected by additives such as stability improvers. Or if it’s being stored in the winter, there’s a need for a cold flow improver because diesel fuel gels up in wintertime in ways that gasoline doesn’t, and business doesn’t stop when the weather gets cold.
If you store diesel for a longer period of time, there is a greater chance that it will become contaminated with microbes. That has been the most significant shift in the previous five years. It really started more than ten years ago, but as the old low sulfur diesel has been weeded out, it was only a matter of time for microbial problems to settle into our nation’s diesel storage tanks. This means diesel users must now consider things they didn’t before – making sure they keep on top of water in the tank, using biocides when needed (to kill the microbes), even considering microbial testing for their stored fuel (to give them the benefit of a clearly defined problem).
There Are A Lot Of Good Diesel Additives, But No Additive Can Do Everything – Know What You Want
Business teachers used to talk about how you can have the best quality and the best service for the best price – 2 out of the three at the same time, but not all three at the same time. The same is true of diesel fuel additives, or really any fuel additive. You can have something that does a lot of things, does them very well or effectively, does them at a very low treat ratio, and does them for low cost. You can have some of these but not all of these together.
If you’ve spent much time here, you know that this blog is run by Bell Performance and we make fuel additives as our primary business. Our biggest business for the longest time has been multi-function treatments for diesel (Dee-Zol) and gas (Mix-I-Go & Ethanol Defense). They do a lot of things – give you better mileage, get rid of water, clean out your engine, protect your fuel system parts – at a fairly low treat rate (usually 1:1000 or 1 ounce to 10 gallons) for an inexpensive price (less than ten cents a gallon to treat).
Since we’ve been around longer than anyone, we see all sorts of new diesel and gas additives that claim to be able to do everything under the sun for nothing. We trust that our customers and prospective customers can see through a lot of that. But at the same time, the average person may not know enough to make the right assessment all of the time. For diesel fuel treatments, an additive that claims to do everything that Dee-Zol does plus raise fuel cetane rating, does it at a treat rate of 1 gallon to 30 gallons, and does all of that for, let’s say, 3 cents per gallon to treat – that kind of company is relying on consumers not knowing that all of those things aren’t possible at the same time. For that particular example, the issue is the treat rate and the price – you’d need more cetane improver alone than what that additive allows for all of its ingredients together.