General Electric urges exemption of locomotive/marine from 500-ppm sulfur limit

Diesel Fuel News, Oct 27, 2003

Lower-sulfur fuel "is likely to result in leaks in older locomotives" and experience shows "degradation in both reliability and performance of the engine," GE claims. Despite "intermittent" experience with low-sulfur diesel, "we have no experience with locomotives running continuously on 500-ppm fuel," GE says.

Lower-density, low-sulfur diesel fuel ironically could cause higher soot emissions because of late-stage in-cylinder burning of lower-Btu, lighter low-sulfur fuel in locomotives, GE claims, despite tests at Southwest Research Institute showing lower PM with low-sulfur fuel.