Impact of new red diesel on mobile grain driers

From 1 January 2011 diesel is changing. A new European directive will apply to the grade of gasoil that can be used in non-road mobile machinery (tractors, other agricultural equipment, forklifts and portable generators). From this date you will no longer be allowed to use gasoil with a sulphur content greater than 10ppm (parts per million). It appears that despite suggestions that grain driers will be exempt from using this new fuel there could be effects due to the fuel changeover on all mobile grain drier owners.

The new fuel will effectively be white diesel that contains a red dye but the same gasoil duty will still apply (no huge price rise). This fuel as well as having a reduced sulphur content may also contain up to 7% biodiesel. While making the new red diesel more environmentally friendly there are some potential drawbacks: 

• It breaks down faster than exisitng mineral diesel
• It is hygroscopic, encouraging small quantities of water to build up in a tank
• It provides a source of nutrition for bacteria, which multiply, die and could block filters
• It is expected to be 1-2p more per litre

There are several potential impacts, that you may need to be aware of. We are currently talking with our manufacturer, UK fuel suppliers and Riello burners to establish exactly what the possible effects maybe.

Operational cost

You can expect this to increase when using the new fuel by around about 1-2p to remove 1% moisture from 1 tonne of grain. This is solely due to the anticipated higher price of the low sulphur diesel. It’s not a great deal in itself but it does slightly strengthen the economic case for using kerosene with your grain drier.

Storage

This may not be a problem till the beginning of the 2012 season but how do you leave the fuel tank at the end of the season? Completely full or completely empty? Leaving a tank completely full minimises the chance of condensation but the biodiesel element of the fuel may degrade. Alternatively completely drain the tank when finished though this could cause a condensation problem when refilling at the start of the following season.

Grain drier exemption

Static machinery, such as static engines and static grain driers are exempt from using the low sulphur fuel. They may use the existing 1000ppm sulphur diesel that will still be available or Class D Gas Oil which is cheaper than the new low sulphur diesel but can only be used in oil-fired furnaces. Where does this leave a mobile grain drier used in a static application? It is unclear, although, this seems less likely to pose a problem. I reckon that when every other machine on the farm has to be transferred over to the new low sulphur diesel it is unlikely that a second storage facility will be kept solely for fuelling static plant, unless it is used on a very large scale.

There is industry-wide uncertainty, especially with regards to central fuel storage. We are currently working to establish what the best practise will be for using our mobile grain driers and the new low sulphur diesel.

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