The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has given its approval to a second major refiner to produce a clean burning diesel fuel that will meet new state standards required of all California refiners in October.
The approval went to Texaco Refining and Marketing Inc., which developed an alternative to the "clean diesel recipe" adopted by CARB in November 1988. CARB said it approved the Texaco alternative because it is equally effective as the CARB recipe in reducing auto exhaust emissions.
Chevron U.S.A. Inc. received CARB approval for its alternative formula for diesel fuel last summer (OGJ, June 8, 1992, p. 30). In California it operates a 244,000 b/cd refinery at El Segundo and a 229,000 b/cd refinery at Richmond.
TEXACO FUEL
To meet the new standards, Texaco took advantage of a provision in CARB rules that gives companies the flexibility to develop alternative formulas to state specifications, as long as they reduce the same amount of pollution. By juggling the level of components in diesel fuel, Texaco was able to use its refinery configuration to produce an equally clean diesel fuel at lower cost.
CARB estimated the cost of the cleaner diesel fuel to be about 6cts/gal, 50% less than estimates made when the rules were adopted. The flexibility that refiners have in determining how to meet the rule, combined with advances in catalytic technology, have contributed to the cost cuts, CARB said.
Jananne Sharpless, CARB chairwoman, said the new formula will help assure an adequate supply of the cleaner burning diesel fuel as the deadline for the rule approaches.
She also noted that, because Texaco has a key 55,100 b/cd refinery in Bakersfield, it will make supplies of the clean fuel more readily available for agricultural customers in the San Joaquin Valley, who rely heavily on diesel fuel to power trucks and field equipment.
Texaco also has a 95,000 b/cd refinery at Wilmington, Calif.
Copyright 1993 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
