Industry and Energy

Home page

Industry and Energy

Azerbaijan ranks 89th for diesel fuel quality

25 August 2008 10:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Nijat Mustafayev â€“ APA-Economics. The International Fuel Quality Center (IFQC) has ranked the top 100 countries based on sulfur limits in diesel. Ranking is based on the order of the following criteria: sulfur levels in national standards, sulfur levels in local/regional standards (such as specifications for cities/states) and by year of implementation. Rankings were also influenced by market sulfur levels, applied based on available data. The IFQC found Sweden to be at the top of the ranking with the earliest implementation of the lowest sulfur limits. Following in second and third were Germany and Japan, respectively. The US placed 34th overall.
Sulfur is found naturally in crude oil; as a result, it passes into refined products such as transportation fuels when crude is processed at the refinery. When sulfur is emitted into the air as a result of fuel combustion, its compounds have negative environmental and health effects. Environmental damage to forests, crops and water supplies can also result from long-term high sulfur emissions, which contribute acid rain.
Furthermore, sulfur acts as a poison to catalytic aftertreatment systems; desulfurizing diesel fuel enables dramatic improvement in tailpipe emissions.
Many Asian countries placed toward the top of the ranking, including South Korea (35th) and Hong Kong (36th), which came in right behind Canada (33rd).
Azerbaijan comes in the 89th rank, followed by Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Russia ranks 44th, Belarus 45th, Armenia 46th, Georgia 50th, Ukraine 51st, Kazakhstan 65th and Moldova 68th.
Sulfur levels of both gasoline and diesel can vary greatly in countries such as Brazil, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. None of these countries made it into the IFQCâ€™s top 100 ranking for gasoline sulfur limits, but all of them did make the diesel sulfur limit ranking (Brazil at 68th, Malaysia at 79th and Saudi Arabia at 89th).
The range of sulfur content varied dramatically amongst those nations that topped this ranking and those that did notâ€”countries at the bottom of the ranking allow for as much as 5,000 ppm sulfur in their diesel.