In this article, we will look at the winter diesel production technology and the equipment used in this process.
Features of operating diesel vehicles in cold climates
There are many routes with cold climates for transportation of essential goods and foodstuffs. Vehicles for such transportation run on diesel engines. Despite the difficulty of operating diesel-powered vehicles in cold climates, they are still chosen for their power rating and cost effectiveness compared to gasoline equivalents.
In regular summer diesel, paraffin becomes thicker, and at temperatures below zero degrees Celsius, it forms crystals that clog the filters and constrain the fuel flow. The fuel cannot pass through the filter, and if the temperature drops below, it reaches its pour point, where it loses its fluidity and gets waxed. Paraffin crystals cannot be removed because paraffin includes the constituents such as cetane which ensure increased engine power rating and performance.
For low temperatures, diesel with a low pour point or, as it is also called, winter diesel is used.
How winter diesel is produced
Crude oil refining to create winter-grade diesel is expensive and complex, because it is required to remove paraffinic hydrocarbons. The method of adding kerosene to diesel is expensive as well. Therefore, more and more manufacturers are currently looking for options to produce winter-grade diesel by mixing additives with summer-grade fuel which allows lowering the pour point.
Winter additives are effective and economically advantageous in terms of preparing the fuel for frosty weather. There are several types of additives: anti-gels, pour-point depressants, fuel additives, injector cleaning additives, anti-paraffin additives, and fuel tank anti-water agents.
Winter additives for diesel fuel
Winter fuel additives ensure comprehensive protection for the fuel system, the engine, and the environment; in particular, they prevent fuel from freezing, clean the fuel system and maintain its operability, improve performance, extend the engine life and reduce maintenance costs, are more environmentally friendly. The most common diesel additive for winter is anti-gel, which is used in the cold winter months to prevent fuel from thickening and fuel filters from clogging with ice and paraffin.
When properly mixed, additives change the structure of wax-like molecules in the fuel, preventing them from sticking together and forming deposits on filters.
GlobeCore winter diesel production technology
Industrial mixing of additives with diesel requires special-purpose equipment. The existing technology cannot always ensure high-quality mixing to the full extent, because in the long run, diesel separates into several constituents. Considering this fact, GlobeCore has developed the equipment that allows preventing this — USB hydrodynamic cavitation mixing units with a capacity of eighteen to one hundred cubic meters per hour. The particular feature of this equipment is that these allow compounding from two to seven constituents in stream, one of which is summer diesel, while the others are additives, through the use of an injection method and a hydrodynamic impact. It results in obtaining a homogeneous high-dispersion winter diesel mixture at the outlet which does not separate for at least 180 days.
The USB units are manufactured in accordance with the customer’s individual requirements and technological processes and can be adapted in terms of capacity and the number of ingredients to be mixed. Depending on the operating conditions, the equipment can be designed in various versions: skid-mounted, containerized, or trailer-mounted.
The use of GlobeCore technology makes it possible to produce winter diesel at a lower price; its quality is not inferior to the winter diesel produced by conventional crude oil refining methods. Furthermore, it allows saving the amount of required additives and money due to a hydraulic impact which breaks the processed ingredients into microparticles.