Diesel

Diesel fuel is any liquid fuel used in diesel engines. The most common is a specific fractional distillate of petroleum fuel oil, but alternatives that are not derived from petroleum, such as biodiesel, biomass to liquid (BTL) or gas to liquid (GTL) diesel, are increasingly being developed and adopted. To distinguish these types, petroleum-derived diesel is increasingly called petrodiesel.

The word "diesel" is derived from the German inventor Rudolf Diesel who in 1892 invented the diesel engine.

Ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) is a term used to describe a standard for defining diesel fuel with substantially lowered sulfur contents.

As of 2006, almost all of the petroleum-based diesel fuel available in Europe and North America is of a ULSD type. The move to lower sulfur content is expected to allow the application of newer emissions control technologies that should substantially lower emissions of particulate matter from diesel engines. This change occurred first in the European Union and is now happening in North America. New emissions standards, dependent on the cleaner fuel, have been in effect for automobiles in the United States since model year 2007.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_fuel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-low_sulfur_diesel