Green diesel?? And I don't mean bio!

I put a heap of fuel in my external 200 litre tank and was surprised to see it green also........ was bp

As a former oil refinery operator, the only things I can think of are:

Normally the diesel we put in our tanks is it's natural colour after the refnining prcoess.

However, other refined products do have coloured dye put in 'em in order to identify 'em. e.g - AVGAS is purple, the old SUPER petrol was dyed red and so on.

There could have been a stuff up as the diesel was being blended in the refinery Tank Farm and dye was inadvertently injected into the finished tank blend. These things happen!! Whilst there are laws that certain oil products should be coloured a certain way, there is no law that says diesel can't be green. So rather than re-process it, they sold it as is.

Or it could have been imported (ex-Singapore) and "that's the colour it is take it or leave it, it's cheap".

Or it could have been refined for export, got dyed, and then the contract fell through. This happens. The product has to be removed from the supply chain otherwise pipelines back up - so to get rid of it. Sell it to anyone that'll take it.

Or again, some crude oils just come out a funny colour when refined. Some heavy waxy cudes can come out with a yellow/green tinge. There's no colour spec on diesel ( I seem to remember, I think) - so it's sold "as is".

Bilbo

Years ago diesel was coloured green in an attempt to catch primary producers etc. using in their road vehicles, as they paid no road tax on diesel fuels used on their properties.

I asked the 7/11 guy why it was flurescent yellow and he called his supplier (i think mobil?) and he called me back and said it was something to do with the new fuels. But I still see a lot of clear diesel so it is not a standard, I think its just brand related.

we use marine diesel and it is green. different companies use different dyes, i'm sure its simply for identification purposes.....but are we talking green like avgas green, or a yellowish sort of colour??

Yep, BP diesel low sulphur is green, has been ever since it changed from the bluey colour. I asked about it myself once. Maybe Caltex do the same thing?

D-Jack

Shell Servo near my place is always yellow bright yellow!

I have found BP Diesel to be green, i also get Diesel from Mobil that is Yellow

Well there ya go! You learn sumfink new every day!

They never made Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel when I last worked in oil refineries, about 10 years ago.

Bilbo

well it appears the color is not so unusual after all. Thanks guys.

Leroy