Soundtrack: I always thought this song was called What´s That Stink, but it's What´s at Stake, which is somehow even more appropriate for this post:
Mighty Mighty Bosstones: What´s at Stake
If I had a version of hell as a kid, it was being stuck in the back of the family Station Wagon, the seats all taken by others, trekking down an anonymous American Interstate, in the families 1980 Diesel Station Wagon. It was the Griswalds meet something out of the horror movie Hostel. The stench from the sulfur from both our car and the surrounding trucks made me want to pass out more than once, and perhaps once or twice I did, propped up between my dad´s musty suitcases and the back window, which I used to beg to have opened from 12 feet away to the front seat for air, just to have the stench kick in from the tailpipe, curling up in the icy slipstream of what was usually a New England winter, and make me realize the true devils bargain I had struck, and that we were striking with Diesel. We had a cat named Snowball that gave up the ghost on one of these trips. We assumed it was because my older sister, also once stuck in what we called the Waaay Back with me due maybe to a family friend along (she used to use her 2 years advantage in size in any way possible to avoid this fate), clogged off his little cat box breathing holes with the necessary down jacket some winter trip, but I´m now going to chalk it up to carbon dioxide poisoning in my past the environmental innocence of the 70´s´ new found awareness (this post ifs for you, Snowball!.. sniffle...). I didn´t think much about conservation at age 5, but I sure as hell knew something wasn't right. This car, by the way, became a legendary turkey, is now on the list of ten worst cars of all times, the Oldsmobile, Buick, or GM station wagons from 1980. You see, Diesel is powerful, and needs a high compression ratio to burn (1 to 9 is typical for a gas engine, like ti was supposed to be, and for a Diesel, you start at 1 to 14 minimum, and go up from there to as high as maybe 1 to 24), especially with just a glow plug instead of a spark to make it commbust, and what GM did, since it takes about 2 years to cure the steel an engine block properly, or at least did in the technology of the day, is take a bunch of gas engines they had on hand, and just call them diesel after the country went mad for fuel efficiency in the wake of the Gas shortages during the OPEC crisis.. since they were short on appropriate ones and people were clamboring for diesel. The end result, to the endless snickers of the Click and Clack´s of the world, was that the crank shaft would literally blow off the bottom of the engine after a while...
There she is.. the Cutlass Cruiser.. our´s was light blue..
should have been a warning!
should have been a warning!
So diesel, you have smelled it for years unless you grew up like Romulus and Remus.. it is the power of world ground transportation, and much of our medium scale water transportation as well..
it is less refined than gasoline (hey, it´s a workin' man´s thing.. if you refine me, you take away the spunk I need to get things done! Keep your classical music, I loves my rock and roll!) so used to be cheaper, that stench that reminds you of nothing good, belching from a bus you are hustling past, emanating from an idling truck next to the park you are trying to chill in, roaring from the back of some ranchers truck who came into town to catch a Brooks and Dunn show.. it's something about that combo of mechanical sound (is there something loose in there.. why does it have to make so much noise!?) and smell that the brain finds nothing good about that makes it a foul thing.. and if now is the age of petroleum, than when it comes to hard work, it is the age of Diesel, because it packs more heat and more dependability than any other fuel source at normal temperatures. I know because I personally tried to replace it. I worked on electrifying a boat once, giving it a system to support one of these nifty doo dads:
http://www.torqeedo.com/us/
I once asked a friend of mine at the time who was a salvage captain, and who had been kind of around helping me with my boat conversion, what he thought of what I was doing, and if he ever would think of changing his over. He often worked in bad storms and hurricanes, and his answer was no, because he said he could turn a garden hose onto his diesel and it would just keep whirring away, didn´t even need the electricity going once the glow plugs heated up.. it´s kind of a crushing blow to those of us who know that every ounce of carbon emitted right now is a step further down a long path to a bad place, but this is the logic of the immediate, so how can we find hope in this.. well, back to that stink... that stink is a lot of the things that are expensive to refine off, so, of course, they didn´t, but that stink didn´t do much for diesel power either.. some of the chemicals might have provided engine lubrication or burned to create a bit more unf, but what you really need out of it can still be there if you filter the other crap out that is part of the toxic soup that comes from the dark depths of the earth as crude oil. That stink is mostly Sulfur, and in this form even less somehow enticing than that wet fart smell you get in geothermal springs (c'mon, you know deep down inside you kind of sniff it and like it sometimes..) or after eating too many pickled eggs..
So it ain´t full stop, it ain´t world wide conversion to electric power (give it a bit more time) but the nations of the world are slowly starting to come around individually on what is known as Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-low-sulfur_diesel
You see, when the stench is raw, that's 5000 ppm.. that's the old stuff. when I cross into Mexico and an old School Bus from Plano Texas welcomes me by roaring into my face until the feeling I want to vomit reminds me my id is home, that is the hard stuff. the 5000 proof..it´s Tequila for trucks..
Rusty Cage by Johnny Cash, warning, scenes from No Country for Old Men
you are back in the 70´s, hells bells for progress, collateral's be damned...
We seem to have shot right by Low Sulfur Diesel, which does not have any definition.
When you can´t smell the sulphur hardly at all, but you know it's there just enough to remind you of the old days, you are down to 50ppm, Where Ultra Low seems to be defined, although it's a nation by nation process. 50ppm is where the US now are, and even places like Thailand as as of 2012...in fact, Europe is down to like 15ppm or less.. that's the true Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel.. it ain't that howling moan and stench that makes you think the Gates of Mordor opened up, that stench of dinosaur bones and bleak despair that is something out of the tranche of finally honest 70´s movies, something by BBS productions, or the sad fantasy of machines ruling the world in Maximum Overdrive, it's actually a bright new future where we might not realize we are harming the environment quite so odorously, or be reminded of it quite so intensely with every stifled breath, but it is better than nothing, because in fact, Sulfur is a bit like Methane, it traps a bit more of the old heat than a standard CO2 molecule does, so supposedly, while changing to sustainably derived electric propulsion is ideal, this is better than nothing. Alaska was slower to adapt than the rest of the US, I think about 2010.. I could smell the difference.. it was like having a nightmare return for the years between US adaptation and Alaskan..
Anyhow, so recently I was in a tropical country, and I was settling into the first city I would visit, and I saw a crew of expats doing what they do, getting drunk and making trouble.. they were the kind of guys I have become used to in places like this.. they are bored, and they bide their time carousing and drinking, but they tend to be a lot more thoughtful than first presentation would indicate.. they left home for a reason, perhaps the money, but there is usually a story there, and these guys didn't disappoint.. I could tell they were leery of me, so I broke the ice a bit, and I could tell that leeriness was because they were doing something they thought I might not like if I were reflexive or simple.. as the night wore on, I did learn that they were in resource extraction, and that they were working on helping this country rebuild it's refinery capacity.. since I had revealed a little knowledge, they let me know that while they were helping this country, which I will admit is Colombia, become independent for refining, as they are currently a net exporter of Oil, but have to import refined products, that the expansion in capacity they were working on in Cartagena, but also is being worked on at the other refinery in the boom town of Barrancabarmeja, is in fact going to be low sulfur... they said that the Colombians ¨dinked around for a year¨but the project is on the way, and the two year project is a year done, so look for fresher air in northern Colombia by sometime in 2014.
Now I can't seem to snap my fingers and make diesel go away, but I breathe a bit easier when a bus goes by back in the good ol' US of A or Europe, and I am looking forward to the day when Colombians don't have to hold their breath as they scurry down the streets away from traffic.. they may still be getting poisoned.. we might still be short sighted-ly causing our doom, but it might be a little more hopeful to not have to know so obviously you are being poisoned, and maybe Colombia´s cities and towns will become a little less grey as a result...sometimes perspective is everything...
Off to burn more Dinosaur Bones... Yee Haa!
King of the Road
it is less refined than gasoline (hey, it´s a workin' man´s thing.. if you refine me, you take away the spunk I need to get things done! Keep your classical music, I loves my rock and roll!) so used to be cheaper, that stench that reminds you of nothing good, belching from a bus you are hustling past, emanating from an idling truck next to the park you are trying to chill in, roaring from the back of some ranchers truck who came into town to catch a Brooks and Dunn show.. it's something about that combo of mechanical sound (is there something loose in there.. why does it have to make so much noise!?) and smell that the brain finds nothing good about that makes it a foul thing.. and if now is the age of petroleum, than when it comes to hard work, it is the age of Diesel, because it packs more heat and more dependability than any other fuel source at normal temperatures. I know because I personally tried to replace it. I worked on electrifying a boat once, giving it a system to support one of these nifty doo dads:
http://www.torqeedo.com/us/
I once asked a friend of mine at the time who was a salvage captain, and who had been kind of around helping me with my boat conversion, what he thought of what I was doing, and if he ever would think of changing his over. He often worked in bad storms and hurricanes, and his answer was no, because he said he could turn a garden hose onto his diesel and it would just keep whirring away, didn´t even need the electricity going once the glow plugs heated up.. it´s kind of a crushing blow to those of us who know that every ounce of carbon emitted right now is a step further down a long path to a bad place, but this is the logic of the immediate, so how can we find hope in this.. well, back to that stink... that stink is a lot of the things that are expensive to refine off, so, of course, they didn´t, but that stink didn´t do much for diesel power either.. some of the chemicals might have provided engine lubrication or burned to create a bit more unf, but what you really need out of it can still be there if you filter the other crap out that is part of the toxic soup that comes from the dark depths of the earth as crude oil. That stink is mostly Sulfur, and in this form even less somehow enticing than that wet fart smell you get in geothermal springs (c'mon, you know deep down inside you kind of sniff it and like it sometimes..) or after eating too many pickled eggs..
So it ain´t full stop, it ain´t world wide conversion to electric power (give it a bit more time) but the nations of the world are slowly starting to come around individually on what is known as Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-low-sulfur_diesel
You see, when the stench is raw, that's 5000 ppm.. that's the old stuff. when I cross into Mexico and an old School Bus from Plano Texas welcomes me by roaring into my face until the feeling I want to vomit reminds me my id is home, that is the hard stuff. the 5000 proof..it´s Tequila for trucks..
Rusty Cage by Johnny Cash, warning, scenes from No Country for Old Men
you are back in the 70´s, hells bells for progress, collateral's be damned...
We seem to have shot right by Low Sulfur Diesel, which does not have any definition.
When you can´t smell the sulphur hardly at all, but you know it's there just enough to remind you of the old days, you are down to 50ppm, Where Ultra Low seems to be defined, although it's a nation by nation process. 50ppm is where the US now are, and even places like Thailand as as of 2012...in fact, Europe is down to like 15ppm or less.. that's the true Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel.. it ain't that howling moan and stench that makes you think the Gates of Mordor opened up, that stench of dinosaur bones and bleak despair that is something out of the tranche of finally honest 70´s movies, something by BBS productions, or the sad fantasy of machines ruling the world in Maximum Overdrive, it's actually a bright new future where we might not realize we are harming the environment quite so odorously, or be reminded of it quite so intensely with every stifled breath, but it is better than nothing, because in fact, Sulfur is a bit like Methane, it traps a bit more of the old heat than a standard CO2 molecule does, so supposedly, while changing to sustainably derived electric propulsion is ideal, this is better than nothing. Alaska was slower to adapt than the rest of the US, I think about 2010.. I could smell the difference.. it was like having a nightmare return for the years between US adaptation and Alaskan..
Anyhow, so recently I was in a tropical country, and I was settling into the first city I would visit, and I saw a crew of expats doing what they do, getting drunk and making trouble.. they were the kind of guys I have become used to in places like this.. they are bored, and they bide their time carousing and drinking, but they tend to be a lot more thoughtful than first presentation would indicate.. they left home for a reason, perhaps the money, but there is usually a story there, and these guys didn't disappoint.. I could tell they were leery of me, so I broke the ice a bit, and I could tell that leeriness was because they were doing something they thought I might not like if I were reflexive or simple.. as the night wore on, I did learn that they were in resource extraction, and that they were working on helping this country rebuild it's refinery capacity.. since I had revealed a little knowledge, they let me know that while they were helping this country, which I will admit is Colombia, become independent for refining, as they are currently a net exporter of Oil, but have to import refined products, that the expansion in capacity they were working on in Cartagena, but also is being worked on at the other refinery in the boom town of Barrancabarmeja, is in fact going to be low sulfur... they said that the Colombians ¨dinked around for a year¨but the project is on the way, and the two year project is a year done, so look for fresher air in northern Colombia by sometime in 2014.
Now I can't seem to snap my fingers and make diesel go away, but I breathe a bit easier when a bus goes by back in the good ol' US of A or Europe, and I am looking forward to the day when Colombians don't have to hold their breath as they scurry down the streets away from traffic.. they may still be getting poisoned.. we might still be short sighted-ly causing our doom, but it might be a little more hopeful to not have to know so obviously you are being poisoned, and maybe Colombia´s cities and towns will become a little less grey as a result...sometimes perspective is everything...
Off to burn more Dinosaur Bones... Yee Haa!
King of the Road
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