Re diesel and current price for it.

When we were young and diesel was cheap, it had 500 ppm of sulfur. When catalytic converters were installed in cars, the sulfur content of gasoline had to be lowered to around 5ppm (I don't remember, that was in the late '80's) to protect the catalyst in the converters. Around 1995, the sulfur content of highway diesel had to be lowered to 5 ppm also, it was labeled LSD (low sulfur diesel). Sulfur makes SOx which makes smog. At the time, farm equipment diesel was still 500 ppm sulfur and it was called HSD (high sulfur diesel).

The process in a refinery to remove sulfur is expensive, it requires the use of catalysts, high pressure (up to 2000 psi), and then the sulfur has to be handled and shipped out of the refinery. By the time all of this is done, the process to make LSD (the fossil fuel kind) is almost the same as the process to make premium gasoline. So LSD has a similar price at the pump as gasoline. I have been retired 15 years now, I don't know what the requirements for farm diesel is - is it still 500 ppm sulfur?

(07-15-2024, 02:52 PM)Ray Wrote:  “Corn ethanol is not a climate-friendly fuel,” said Dr. Tyler Lark, assistant scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment and lead author of the study.


The research, which was funded in part by the National Wildlife Federation and U.S. Department of Energy, found that ethanol is likely at least 24% more carbon-intensive than gasoline due to emissions resulting from land use changes to grow corn, along with processing and combustion.

I've always thought ethanol was not kind to the planet because of all the diesel fuel and chemicals needed to produce the crop and refine ethanol.
In hilly southern Iowa a lot of grassland was changed to crop ground when ethanol got big.
This added to water pollution problems from the added soil and chemical runoff. There's also less wildlife habitat.

(07-16-2024, 08:13 AM)Lee Wrote: I've always thought ethanol was not kind to the planet because of all the diesel fuel and chemicals needed to produce the crop

I forgot to mention aviation fuel. A crop duster just flew over the house

(07-16-2024, 08:13 AM)Lee Wrote:

(07-15-2024, 02:52 PM)Ray Wrote:  “Corn ethanol is not a climate-friendly fuel,” said Dr. Tyler Lark, assistant scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment and lead author of the study.


The research, which was funded in part by the National Wildlife Federation and U.S. Department of Energy, found that ethanol is likely at least 24% more carbon-intensive than gasoline due to emissions resulting from land use changes to grow corn, along with processing and combustion.

I've always thought ethanol was not kind to the planet because of all the diesel fuel and chemicals needed to produce the crop and refine ethanol.
In hilly southern Iowa a lot of grassland was changed to crop ground when ethanol got big.
This added to water pollution problems from the added soil and chemical runoff. There's also less wildlife habitat.

If your rewind the clock to 2000, the idea was to transition to crops likes like switch grass to be source material.  But, when crop prices drop, just like they currently have, ethanol becomes a buffer market for the corn growers.  However, Corn requires lots of water and nitrogen, challenging aquafers with high withdrawal rates and surface runoff.  IIRC, Kansas is having some aquafer depletion issues.

But, in the big scheme of things, highway gasoline sales peaked in 2004~2006 and have gradually declined since that time.  However, highway diesel sales have continued to rise.  So, the refiners don't want to blend, but the farmers want the market to stabilize crop prices.  

Honestly, it'll stay that way until the farmers decide to plant solar panels or wind turbines to make their money.