Measuring Progress toward Cleaner Fuels: A Study of the Refining Industry's Tier 2 Motor Fuel Activities

Description:

Petroleum refiners face a multitude of challenges as they position themselves to compete in the ever-changing market for cleaner fuels. Demand for cleaner fuels is growing, driven by new regulatory programs such as the Mobile Source Air Toxics (MSAT) rule, Tier 2 low sulfur gasoline, and Tier 2 ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD), and prospective programs such as low sulfur off-road diesel, a renewable fuels standard (RFS), and the future 8-hour ozone standard. This paper deals with the response of the U.S. refining industry to two of these programs: Tier 2 gasoline sulfur control (which takes effect in 2004) and ULSD (which takes effect in 2006). In particular, the paper focuses on two elements of the industry’s response: ¾ The overall pace at which the U.S. refining industry is implementing its compliance with these regulatory programs ¾ The technologies that refiners are selecting to comply with one of these programs: gasoline sulfur control. The discussion of the first topic is based on recent surveys of the U.S. refining industry conducted by The Clean Fuels Clearinghouse™. The discussion of the second topic draws on recent analyses conducted by MathPro Inc.