Broadened diesel fuel specifications for rail applications

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:5330408

Cataldi, C R

As the demand for distillate products increases, petroleum refiners find it increasingly expensive to meet the traditional specifications for jet and diesel fuels. Because those costs eventually show up in the price of fuel, the railroad industry has a diesel fuel research program to identify broadened specification fuels that cost less than standard fuels and which do not adversely affect engine performance or maintenance cost. Laboratory tests concentrated on cetane number, distillation range, and viscosity. The tests included 72 hours at idle speed, engine performance, and 500-hour endurance tests. Long-term field tests have verified the laboratory findings that cetane number can be reduced to 32 and 90 percent distillation point increased to 700/sup 0/F. Several railroads now have over three years of experience with broadened specification fuels in normal operations with no reported problems. With formal tests, some railroads have also relaxed their winter specifications for pour and cloud points.

• OSTI ID: 5330408
• Report Number(s): CONF-880104-
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
330102* -- Internal Combustion Engines-- Diesel
ANTIKNOCK RATINGS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
COST
DIESEL ENGINES
DIESEL FUELS
DISTILLATION
ENGINES
FIELD TESTS
HEAT ENGINES
INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES
LOCOMOTIVES
OPERATION
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SPECIFICATIONS
TESTING
TRAINS
VEHICLES
VISCOSITY