I dont know how it was years ago but now adays its the same. There was a layover when they introduced ULSD. They kept the LSD as off road until it was gone. Now its all ULSD. Ive built the tanks, welded the pipeline, installed the dye pumps, loaded the trucks, and cleaned up the messes that truck drivers made. Ive done this at Marathon, Shell, BP, Thortins, and other terminals.

 

I know that there used to be no difference before the whole lsd and ulsd started and like david said there was a layover where they used all the lsd produced already as farm diesel. I remeber when the ulsd first strated in pumps we were still getting the 500ppm or whatever lsd was.

Also one time a ranch i was working for got a batch that had a blue dye if i remeber correctly. I dont know if somebody f***ed up or if the company was testing it or what.

 

That is no longer true as of 2006. All diesel produced from 2006 onwards for non-rail or marine applications is ULSD.

The only difference is road tax.

 

i talked to my home heating oil/fuel delivery guy at work. he delivers HHO to the shop and Red fuel to all my jobs. i asked him if they were the same. he said no, red off road and on road are same cept for color. HHO is still low sulfer, not ULSD yet.


now i duno if this is just his setup or that way for alot of people.

 

heard somewhere its not as clean... is this just another misconception?

 

yes. It all comes from the same tank. The only difference is the driver pushed a button to add dye and you dont pay road tax.

 

No. Before 2006 it was true, red diesel used to be a higher sulfur content. But since even off-road equipment will soon be required to use the same equipment fouled by sulfur (DPF, cat), it made sense for the refineries to spend the millions of dollars to convert all the equipment to ULSD production once so they wouldn't have to shut-down a second time for upgrades.

Highway pumps with LSD stickers are all serving ULSD, they just haven't been certified (an expensive process) to be labeled as such. The only LSD still in production is dedicated to rail and marine uses.