FAQ: "I've heard modern diesel fuel doesn't have the lubricity required by our older injection pumps, and we have to use additives"?
TL;DR: Diesel made in the USA and Canada since 2005 is fine to use in your fuel pump without lubricity additives. (I don't know anything about cold weather additives).
The "Modern low sulphur fuel = low lubricity = injection pump failure" story comes from California, where it was fact between 1995 and 2005. In 1995 CA required all diesel to be low sulphur. The process that removes the sulphur also reduces the fuel's lubricity, but CA (and the rest of the USA) didn't have a standard that specified a minimum lubricity for diesel.
Here's a presentation by Bosch (designers of our IP) to CARB in 2003: https://www.arb.ca.gov/fuels/gasoline/meeting/2003/022003bosch.pdf
Summary (Read in a German accent): "Your low sulphur diesel is shit. It destroys our injection pumps. Fix it. Preferably by aligning your fuel standards to the EU standards."
The other place where this was an issue was Sweden in 1991, but they fixed it pretty quickly and updated the EU regulations. When low sulphur diesel came to NZ (2003-ish?) we followed the EU guidelines because why wouldn't you.
In 2005 ASTM and CARB updated their diesel fuel specifications to include lubricity. Bosch recommended they use the same standards as the EU (460um maximum), so of course ASTM specified something slightly worse at 520um. It doesn't seem to cause any harm though.
Chevron's Diesel Fuel Technical Review (https://www.chevron.com/-/media/chevron/operations/documents/diesel-fuel-tech-review.pdf) is fantastic, if a bit long.
Happy reading!
TL;DR: Diesel made in the USA and Canada since 2005 is fine to use in your fuel pump without lubricity additives. (I don't know anything about cold weather additives).
The "Modern low sulphur fuel = low lubricity = injection pump failure" story comes from California, where it was fact between 1995 and 2005. In 1995 CA required all diesel to be low sulphur. The process that removes the sulphur also reduces the fuel's lubricity, but CA (and the rest of the USA) didn't have a standard that specified a minimum lubricity for diesel.
Here's a presentation by Bosch (designers of our IP) to CARB in 2003: https://www.arb.ca.gov/fuels/gasoline/meeting/2003/022003bosch.pdf
Summary (Read in a German accent): "Your low sulphur diesel is shit. It destroys our injection pumps. Fix it. Preferably by aligning your fuel standards to the EU standards."
The other place where this was an issue was Sweden in 1991, but they fixed it pretty quickly and updated the EU regulations. When low sulphur diesel came to NZ (2003-ish?) we followed the EU guidelines because why wouldn't you.
In 2005 ASTM and CARB updated their diesel fuel specifications to include lubricity. Bosch recommended they use the same standards as the EU (460um maximum), so of course ASTM specified something slightly worse at 520um. It doesn't seem to cause any harm though.
Chevron's Diesel Fuel Technical Review (https://www.chevron.com/-/media/chevron/operations/documents/diesel-fuel-tech-review.pdf) is fantastic, if a bit long.
Happy reading!
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