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Cold comfort on diesel
Page 14
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• Operators can expect no general improvement in the cold flow performance of diesel fuel this winter, following the failure of a British Standards Institution technical committee to reach agreement on a new standard.
The current British Standard, BS 2869, specifies a CFPP (cold filter plugging point) of —9°C and a proposal by the United Kingdom Petroleum Industry Association to improve this to —12°C has been rejected by vehicle operators' representatives, including the RHA and ETA. They argue that —12°C CFPP fuel was widely available last winter and did not prevent many vehicles breaking down with waxed fuel. The FTA, RHA and National Bus say that an "on paper" improvement to —12°C would in practice offer no improvement whatsoever. The FTA says that it has repeatedly asked UKPIA what the cost would be of a fuel incorporating additives to take the CFPP to —15°C but, according to the FTA, the reply has always been "the BSI is not the forum for discussing prices or costs".
The oil companies' and vehicle operators' representatives on the BSI technical committee also failed to agree on a revised cetane number for diesel. A cetane number is a measure of ignition quality, and the operators' representatives say that the oil companies' original proposal to reduce the BSI cetane number from the current 50 to 47 would lead to increased white smoke and longer cranking time when cold starting.
A compromise solution involving a cetane number reduction to 48 accompanied by a tightening up of fuel specification in other areas was not agreed unanimously by the BSI committee.
The proposed amendments will now probably go to the BSI's disputes procedure which almost certainly means that no new standard will be in force before next winter.