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With the average cost of diesel fuel edging toward $5 per gallon, one California county is trying to protect itself from a growing rash of diesel thefts.

In just the past few months, Kern County, Calif., has lost more than $280,000 worth of fuel to thieves, said police, although the problem is not exclusive to the area.

Kern County Detective Gary William called this an epidemic that won’t be getting better anytime soon. “I attribute it to the economy; I attribute it to the upswing of the price of fuel,” he said.

Police in Kern County, whose crops include potatoes and oranges, have set up a task force to combat the problem and are encouraging farmers and growers to report any thefts.
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High fuel prices have triggered a wave of thefts of low-tax red diesel, used for tractors and other agricultural machinery, from farms across Britain.

NFU Mutual, the leading provider of insurance to rural enterprises, reports that the number of claims for stolen red diesel are up 30 per cent in the first five months of the year. So far, there have been 50 claims involving a total of ?100,000.

However, the loss of diesel alone is not the only problem for farmers. Often thieves leave the pump nozzle open, so that diesel runs away on to the ground leading to serious pollution. The cost of the clean-up is more than the price of the fuel.

The cost of red diesel is 65p a litre, of which 9.69p is tax. A year ago the average price of red diesel was 38p a litre. In 2002 farmers paid 17p a litre.
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Particulates in diesel exhaust are a substantial cause of the negative health effects traced to air pollution, above all in traffic environments. Diesel exhaust contains a number of extremely tiny particles about 1/10,000 mm in diameter, with chemical compounds bound to the surface that have been suggested to lie behind the ability of these particles to cause harmful health effects.

Individuals with lung or heart disease are especially vulnerable and are impacted most negatively during periods with high levels of air pollution. In his dissertation, H?kan T?rnqvist studied the effects of diesel exhaust on healthy individuals and respective patient groups with chronic obstructive lung disease (COL) and coronary disease with atherosclerosis in the coronary artery.

The aim of the studies in the dissertation was to use controlled exposure studies to try to elucidate the mechanisms that explain why diesel exhaust particulates in polluted air cause increased morbidity in both lung and heart diseases. The studies were carried out in an exposure chamber, where the individuals were exposed for one hour to, respectively, diesel exhaust with a particulate concentration of about 300 µg/m3 and filtered air. The two exposures were in random order, so the individuals served as their own controls.
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The Australian unit of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it may bring forward a planned diesel import cargo to meet strong demand from miners in western Australia after an explosion cut gas supplies.

The blast earlier this week at a gas plant operated by a unit of Apache Corp (APA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has left mining companies, metals refiners and other industrial users in Australia’s most important mining region out of fuel or scrambling for alternative sources of gas or diesel to minimise the impact on production.

“We have received interest from customers to lift more diesel than their forecast demand in western Australia,” Shell Australia said in a statement.
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A controversial plan backed by Indonesia’s president to turn water into cheap and limitless energy has run aground, with tests showing the wonder fuel is just plain diesel, a report said Tuesday.

Government scientists have revealed that tests on the so-called “Blue Energy,” purportedly made from water, showed it was diesel from state oil company Pertamina, the Jakarta Post reported.

“Blue Energy is nothing extraordinary as it is just a form of hydrocarbon or fossil fuel,” Research and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman was quoted as saying.
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Bio-hydrogenated diesel (BHD), a high-quality biodiesel suitable for blending to create a greener alternative fuel for vehicles, would be launched commercially after tests prove successful, said PTT Plc president Prasert Bunsumpun.

Testing of the hydrogenation process to produce BHD from vegetable oil would be completed next year.

BHD can be mixed in a 10:90 ratio with diesel fuel, compared with the 5:95 ratio of the existing B100 biodiesel to diesel fuel.

PTT, the state-run oil and gas conglomerate, signed an agreement on Friday to collaborate with Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) and two of the Japanese automaker’s local units to research BHD. Toyota would supply Hilux Vigo pickup trucks and diesel engines to PTT for the tests.
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