Petrol And Diesel – Delivering Quality
The rules governing the quality and safety of the fuel New Zealanders put in their cars are to be reviewed Associate Minister of Energy Paul Swain announced today.
The Ministry of Economic Development will be leading the 'Petroleum Products Specifications Regulations Review' with the assistance of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Transport.
“The review will consider consumer, industry, health, safety, environmental, and quality issues in developing recommendations for petrol and diesel that are appropriate for New Zealand,” Paul Swain said.
“The goal of the review is to ensure that consumers have access to petrol and diesel that comply with accepted and up-to-date quality, safety, and environmental standards.
"At the same time, we recognise that these products need to be available at a reasonable cost,” he said.
“The present fuel standards were set in 1988 and reflected the nature of New Zealand’s motor vehicle fleet and the technologies of the day.
“Since then amendments have seen lead-free petrol introduced from 1996 and a limit placed on the amount of aromatics used in petrol to increase the octane rating.
“Developments in fuel and engine technologies, improvements in international petroleum standards, and innovations in refining and blending petrol and diesel are changing the automotive fuel industry.
“At the same time, the health, safety, and environmental impacts of fuel components are better understood, and New Zealand’s minimum fuel standards need to reflect these changes and concerns," he said.
The rules, known as the Petroleum Products Specifications Regulations, specify a number of properties and limits for both premium grade and regular grade petrol and for diesel. They include, for example, minimum requirements for octane number and maximum limits for such components as sulphur and benzene.
The review complements work being done by the Ministry of Transport on vehicle emissions standards and the Ministries of Health and Environment on air quality issues.
The Ministry of Economic Development plans to release a public discussion document on petrol and diesel quality later this year as part of the review. The public will be invited to make submissions on the paper at that time. Final decisions on any changes to the fuel standards would then be made, taking into account all the views expressed.
http://www.med.govt.nz/ers/oil_pet/fuelquality/
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
1. What do the regulations
cover?
The Petroleum Products Specifications Regulations
specify a number of properties and limits for both premium
grade and regular grade petrol and for diesel. They
include, for example, minimum requirements for octane number
and maximum limits for such components as sulphur and
benzene.
2. Are there any current concerns with the
quality of petrol and diesel currently sold on the New
Zealand market?
No. Fuel quality is monitored by the
Energy Safety Service, a branch of the Ministry of Consumer
Affairs, which regularly tests petrol and diesel from
service stations around the country to ensure that the fuel
meets established quality, health, and environmental
standards. These tests show that New Zealand’s fuel quality
is good.
3. Why are the specifications being reviewed
now?
The Petroleum Products Specifications Regulations
were first issued in 1988 and have changed very little since
then (aside from the elimination of lead in petrol in 1996).
However, during that period, there have been developments in
engine technologies, innovations in refining petrol and
diesel, and changes in international petroleum standards.
As well, there have been increased concerns about the
environmental and health effects of petrol and diesel.
After 12 years, the review is a good way to check if the
regulations are the best possible for New Zealand’s
situation, or if they need to be changed in some way to
incorporate technological advances and to address health and
environmental issues.
4. Will the review lead to
increased costs for consumers?
Not necessarily. If the
petrol and diesel specifications are changed, fuel prices
may also change. However, any potential increase in the
cost of fuel as a result of the review would need to be
balanced by increased benefits to consumers in the form of
enhanced fuel performance or increased health and
environmental protection.
5. Will the review have an
impact on the oil industry?
The potential impact on the
oil industry as a result of changes to the regulations will
be examined as part of the review. Aspects to be considered
in this part of the review include the capacity and
productivity of the New Zealand refinery and the quality of
petrol and diesel available for import from other refineries
in the Asia-Pacific region, such as those in Australia and
Singapore.
6. How do New Zealand’s current specifications
compare with those of other countries?
Worldwide, there
is a movement to eliminate lead from petrol – a step that
New Zealand made in 1996. Lead is a highly toxic substance
and a proven health hazard. New Zealand’s current
regulations for unleaded petrol and diesel are similar to
those of Australia, Japan and a number of other countries.
Some countries are also changing to fuel that contains less
of certain components such as sulphur and benzene. One of
the objectives of this review is to determine if lowering
levels of these components would also be appropriate for New
Zealand, based on an analysis of the costs and benefits of
such a change.
7. Does New Zealand have any choice but to
adopt the standards of other countries?
The review will
look at the issue of fuel specifications from the
perspective of New Zealand – what are the costs and benefits
to New Zealand’s consumers, its economy, its environment?
What fuel specifications would best suit the cars New
Zealanders are driving and are likely to drive in the
future? Of course, we don’t live in isolation from the rest
of the world, so worldwide fuel specifications will also be
taken into consideration.
8. What are the environmental
issues? Will changing our specifications help us meet any
of our international environmental obligations (e.g., the
Kyoto protocol)?
One of the issues to be looked at is how
the petroleum specifications relate to climate change
issues.
9. Will business be consulted during the
review?
Businesses, consumer groups, oil companies,
refineries, other stakeholders, and the general public will
be consulted in the course of the review.
10. How can a
motorist, car importer, oil company, environmentalist, or
consumer advocate have a say in this process?
The first
step in the review process is the preparation of a
discussion document by the Ministry of Economic Development
that will address the many issues related to fuel
specifications. After the document is released, the public
will be invited to provide comments on it during a
submission period.
11. Who is conducting the
review?
The Ministry of Economic Development is
co-ordinating the review. It is being assisted by an
advisory group with representation from the Ministry for the
Environment, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Health, and
the Energy Safety Service branch of the Ministry of Consumer
Affairs (also part of the Ministry of Economic Development).
URS New Zealand, an independent consulting firm, is
undertaking research for the Ministry of Economic
Development related to the preparation of the discussion
document. URS brings to the project environmental and
technical expertise as well as strong international
experience.
QUESTIONS ABOUT PETROL AND DIESEL IN
GENERAL
12. What is petrol and how is it made?
Petrol
is a blend of different components found in crude petroleum
oil.
Crude oil is a mixture of many different
substances. Most of these substances are hydrocarbons,
which are molecules composed of carbon and hydrogen atoms.
Generally, the more carbon atoms a hydrocarbon contains, the
higher its boiling point. A refinery uses the differences
in boiling point of the hydrocarbons to separate them by
distillation. This process yields products that range from
very light components like propane, which has a boiling
point of less than 20◦C, to very heavy products with
boiling point ranges over 400◦C. A subset of these
distillation products with relatively low boiling point
ranges (20◦C to 200◦C) is used to blend petrol.
Distillation products with higher boiling point ranges may
undergo further heat or chemical processing to transform
them into substances with lower boiling points that can be
used as petrol components. Oil companies blend different
petrol components together depending on the octane number,
vapour pressure, and other properties required for a
particular petrol product.
13. What does the octane number
mean?
Octane number measures whether a petrol is likely
to cause knock in an engine. Knocking or pinking is caused
by self-ignition in the engine’s cylinders, which happens
when the petrol/air vapour mixture in the cylinder ignites
before the spark is passed by the spark plug. This
premature ignition pushes against the crankshaft instead of
with it, producing a knocking or pinging sound. Knocking
causes the engine to overheat and lose power, and it can
damage the engine in the long run.
The way to avoid knocking is to use petrol with a sufficiently high octane number. The higher the octane number, the more resistant the petrol is to the self-ignition that causes knocking.
14. Why is vapour pressure important?
Vapour pressure
is a measure of how easily a liquid vaporises, or changes
into a gas. Petrol is supplied in liquid form, but at least
part of it must be vapour to ignite in an engine combustion
chamber. This means that on a cold day in a cold engine,
enough petrol must vaporise to enable ignition. On the
other hand, on a hot day in a completely warmed-up engine,
it is also important that the petrol does not vaporise and
expand so much that it does not allow any air to be mixed
with it in the cylinder. Oil companies balance these two
extremes when blending petrol, taking into account the
climate and the season where the petrol will be sold.
15.
Why was lead ever added to petrol and why was its use
disallowed in 1996?
Adding certain lead compounds to
petrol was an effective and cost-efficient way to increase
the petrol’s octane number. Lead is known to be toxic to
humans, and its use in petrol is being phased out on a
worldwide basis. New Zealand banned lead from petrol in
1996.
16. How is the octane number of petrol increased
today?
The petrol that you buy at a service station is
actually a mixture of different petroleum components. Each
component has its own properties, including octane number.
By blending carefully, the oil companies can come up with a
formula that has the properties they require for a given
type of fuel, including octane.
17. What is diesel and how
is it different from petrol?
Like petrol, diesel fuel is
blended from various petroleum components produced in a
refinery. However, diesel contains components that have a
boiling point range of approximately 200◦C to
350◦C. Vapour pressure is not an important
consideration in the production of diesel, since the fuel
does not need to change to a gas in a diesel engine. Diesel
engines inject liquid fuel into the cylinder, unlike
petrol-powered engines with carburettors. However,
temperature can have an effect on the operation of diesel
fuel in an engine. At low temperatures, diesel fuel may
thicken and restrict the flow of fuel to the cylinder. Oil
companies produce diesel blends that are formulated for
specific climates and times of the year to prevent problems
in cold weather.
18. Does diesel have an octane
number?
No. Diesel engines do not have spark plugs and
depend on the fuel igniting itself by compression, unlike
petrol engines. The measure of a diesel fuel’s ignition
quality is called the cetane number, which indicates the
readiness of a diesel fuel to ignite spontaneously under the
temperature and pressure conditions in the combustion
chamber of an engine. The higher the number, the shorter
the delay between fuel injection and ignition.
19. Why is
there sulphur in petrol and diesel?
Sulphur is present to
a greater or lesser extent in all crude oils. When crude
oil is distilled into petrol and diesel fuel blending
components, some sulphur finds its way into those
components. The amount of sulphur allowed in petrol and
diesel is limited because of the undesirable effects it
causes during combustion, such as its odour, its
corrosiveness, and its tendency to produce acidic
by-products. In addition, advanced technologies that are
used to meet stringent emissions limits generally require
very low levels of sulphur in order to operate
effectively.