Mexican Diesel Fuel - Sulfur Levels Update
Update Regarding Diesel Fuel in Mexico - September 27, 2017 The Mexico Snowbird Season for 2017/18 is fast approaching, so here is an update regarding sulfur levels in Mexican diesel fuel and the p...
Forum Discussion
In order to make the question clear this needs a yes or no answer...
Did you take fuel samples in Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Lazaro Cardenas, Acapulco, Salina Cruz, Chilpancingo, Morelia, Tuxtla Gutierrez...?
I am an engineer by temperament.
What clarification does, is eliminate doubt.
I would tend to put weight on the CEO's information because it is his butt that is in the hot seat. Why make himself look bad? There is INTENSE PRESSURE to make Mexico 100% UBA in all comistibles. Xavier's word is unimpeachable. He has been dead-on accurate for the last six years.
There "seems to be" resistance from the government? Pemex? about reducing output of diesel of the Salina Cruz refinacion. Would this mean a similar cutback in gasoline production? Is there enough demand for Diesel Marina? God only knows.
EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT
But it's come to pass exactly like Ernesto told me 2 years ago and I passed on to this board...
Refinery upgrading for ultra-low-sulfur-diesel was then and is now a myth.
WHO CARES IF 100% OF THE UBA DIESEL IS EXTRANEOUS? IT GETS THE JOB DONE.
Mexico has a big enough job to get almost all the sulfur out of Magna. That monumental task alone will do as much to clean remaining SO2 out of city air as anything else Pemex can do to do help reduce emissions. Mexican Magna has 5 times the sulfur emission as compared to US gasoline. Reduce the sulfur and gasoline quality goes up -- way up.
When I was loading molten Sulfur onto insulated tankers forty years ago it was taken to Stauffer Chemical to be converted to concentrated Sulfuric acid and returned to be to be precipitated through Iso Butane to make Alkylate. One of the really cherry components of good gasoline. And a key component of AV Gas.
Tours of the Salamanca refinacion, a good look at Reynosa and Salina Cruz showed me key process stream plants were missing. Non existent.
For Mexico to upgrade it's existing refineries to take advantage of newer technologies and utilize full pressure hydrogen to feed it's GOSRH, Hydrocrackers, Reformers, Cat feed and Cat gas hydrocrackers, make alkylation plants and upsize cat crackers would be a ten year hundreds of billions of dollars project. The Manhattan Project of Mexico. The publicity versus the reality is and was a political stunt. And I could care less for political intrigue. It does not do a damned thing for engines or emissions.
I am stuck in a Twilight Zone area of the coast where ARCO, BP, Shell, and Chevron have no port facilities. This means 101% Mexican refined fuels except for Premium (Japanese origin) and the Japanese put their foot down feeding Baja California the one state with UBA diesel. No more. Not one drop more, says Japan. A lot of their diesel is 0 PPM fuel -- no sulfur at all.
If you have experience between operating a hissy-fit gasoline engine on extraneous refined gasoline and Mexican refined gasoline you will see a very unpleasant difference. Premium is not a few cents more expensive these days -- it is almost forty cents a gallon more expensive. Using Techron is a savior but it is neither convenient nor inexpensive.
Thankfully few RV diesel rigs operate within the range of Salina Cruz distribution. And those that do -- do so for a limited mileage factor.
So it is a moot point unless an expat moves to the Salina Cruz influence with a newer sensitive diesel. I wish the transition was complete and makes a discussion such as this utterly obsolete. I can expect different fuel economy with my Kubota and litros completos when I go to fill up vehicles and drums.
Conclusion -- where you see foreign gasolineras, you will find UBA in all gasolinera diesel and hopefully litros completos in the foreign stations.
As for sulfur in gasoline (GASP!) here is a link that is basically understandable. The millions upon millions of gallons of high sulfur MAGNA gasoline burned daily in the capitol smog valley is yet another component of winter eye watering pollutant.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920586103004127
It's light years better than it was just three years ago.
Further footnote information...
http://www.pemex.com/ri/Deuda/Calificacin%20crediticia/Pemex%20Issuer%20In-Depth%20July%202018.pdf
Did you take fuel samples in Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Lazaro Cardenas, Acapulco, Salina Cruz, Chilpancingo, Morelia, Tuxtla Gutierrez...?
I am an engineer by temperament.
What clarification does, is eliminate doubt.
I would tend to put weight on the CEO's information because it is his butt that is in the hot seat. Why make himself look bad? There is INTENSE PRESSURE to make Mexico 100% UBA in all comistibles. Xavier's word is unimpeachable. He has been dead-on accurate for the last six years.
There "seems to be" resistance from the government? Pemex? about reducing output of diesel of the Salina Cruz refinacion. Would this mean a similar cutback in gasoline production? Is there enough demand for Diesel Marina? God only knows.
EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT
But it's come to pass exactly like Ernesto told me 2 years ago and I passed on to this board...
Refinery upgrading for ultra-low-sulfur-diesel was then and is now a myth.
WHO CARES IF 100% OF THE UBA DIESEL IS EXTRANEOUS? IT GETS THE JOB DONE.
Mexico has a big enough job to get almost all the sulfur out of Magna. That monumental task alone will do as much to clean remaining SO2 out of city air as anything else Pemex can do to do help reduce emissions. Mexican Magna has 5 times the sulfur emission as compared to US gasoline. Reduce the sulfur and gasoline quality goes up -- way up.
When I was loading molten Sulfur onto insulated tankers forty years ago it was taken to Stauffer Chemical to be converted to concentrated Sulfuric acid and returned to be to be precipitated through Iso Butane to make Alkylate. One of the really cherry components of good gasoline. And a key component of AV Gas.
Tours of the Salamanca refinacion, a good look at Reynosa and Salina Cruz showed me key process stream plants were missing. Non existent.
For Mexico to upgrade it's existing refineries to take advantage of newer technologies and utilize full pressure hydrogen to feed it's GOSRH, Hydrocrackers, Reformers, Cat feed and Cat gas hydrocrackers, make alkylation plants and upsize cat crackers would be a ten year hundreds of billions of dollars project. The Manhattan Project of Mexico. The publicity versus the reality is and was a political stunt. And I could care less for political intrigue. It does not do a damned thing for engines or emissions.
I am stuck in a Twilight Zone area of the coast where ARCO, BP, Shell, and Chevron have no port facilities. This means 101% Mexican refined fuels except for Premium (Japanese origin) and the Japanese put their foot down feeding Baja California the one state with UBA diesel. No more. Not one drop more, says Japan. A lot of their diesel is 0 PPM fuel -- no sulfur at all.
If you have experience between operating a hissy-fit gasoline engine on extraneous refined gasoline and Mexican refined gasoline you will see a very unpleasant difference. Premium is not a few cents more expensive these days -- it is almost forty cents a gallon more expensive. Using Techron is a savior but it is neither convenient nor inexpensive.
Thankfully few RV diesel rigs operate within the range of Salina Cruz distribution. And those that do -- do so for a limited mileage factor.
So it is a moot point unless an expat moves to the Salina Cruz influence with a newer sensitive diesel. I wish the transition was complete and makes a discussion such as this utterly obsolete. I can expect different fuel economy with my Kubota and litros completos when I go to fill up vehicles and drums.
Conclusion -- where you see foreign gasolineras, you will find UBA in all gasolinera diesel and hopefully litros completos in the foreign stations.
As for sulfur in gasoline (GASP!) here is a link that is basically understandable. The millions upon millions of gallons of high sulfur MAGNA gasoline burned daily in the capitol smog valley is yet another component of winter eye watering pollutant.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920586103004127
It's light years better than it was just three years ago.
Further footnote information...
http://www.pemex.com/ri/Deuda/Calificacin%20crediticia/Pemex%20Issuer%20In-Depth%20July%202018.pdf
