Re: Alltogether Now
"Assuming you were talking about sulphur, not nitrogen - yes, there are ways to do that."
Well, your answer is correct, but it should also be noted that, from a systems perspective, there is a cheaper way of dealing with the problem.
Now, sulphur in fuel is a bit nasty (not entirely without redeeming features, because it increased the lubricity of fuels, but it is likely to burn to oxides of sulphur and they are similarly nasty to oxides of nitrogen). More specifically, they increase the load on expensive vehicle catalytic converters.
So, sometime around ~2000, EU limits on sulphur in vehicle fuels were tightened quite significantly. Now, apart from a temporary outbreak of wearing out of high pressure fuel pumps in 20 minutes, on engine test rigs (not in the UK - UK fuel suppliers maintained reasonable levels of fuel lubricity, in spite of the removal of sulphur) you might wonder where all of the nasty, high sulphur, crude went? Did it all get cleaned up, in expensive sulphur-removal plants? Did they leave it in the ground, unpumped? Nah, it powers shipping, where the sulphur regulation is less well developed, and there aren't any catalytic converters to worry about.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
