NREL and California Air Agency to Test Clean Diesel FuelsFor
more information contact: Sarah Holmes Barba, 303-275-3023
email: Sarah Barba Golden, Colo., Oct. 4, 2000 - The U.S.
Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) will test Fischer-Tropsch synthetic diesel
fuel for California's South Coast Air Quality Management
District (SCAQMD) to determine if using the fuel can help reduce
air pollution. Fischer-Tropsch fuels can be produced from
natural gas, biomass or coal. They are void of sulfur and
aromatic chemical compounds, and therefore can reduce exhaust
emissions from diesel vehicles. Fischer-Tropsch fuels, named
after the German coal researchers Franz Fischer and Hans
Tropsch, who discovered the process for synthesizing
hydrocarbons, are used in South Africa today and have been
blended with crude oil-derived fuels in California to meet the
state's diesel fuel quality standards. Synthetic diesel fuels
have not been widely used in the United States. In 1998 NREL and
its projec