Sweden: Fuels
Since 1991, Sweden has encouraged the use of fuels with stricter environmental performance than EN 590 diesel and EN 228 gasoline. There are three environmental classes for Swedish diesel fuel and two for Swedish gasoline. Details on these fuel classes are found the Swedish Fuel Quality Act [6237]. This act transposes the Fuel Quality Directive (2009/30/EC) into Swedish law and contains rules on the required properties of market fuels as well as reporting obligations for fuel suppliers on a number of issues.
Table 1 summarizes the regulated properties of the three classes of diesel fuel. Environmental class 3 (EC 3) is equivalent to EN590 diesel fuel while environmental class 1 (EC 1) and environmental class 2 (EC 2) limit total aromatics and have lower limits on PAH. The term “environmental class” is an English translation of the Swedish “miljöklass” and as a result, these classes of fuel are often abbreviated as MK 1, MK 2 and MK 3.
| Fuel Property | EC 1 | EC 2 | EC 3 (EN 590) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cetane index, min. | 50 | 47 | 51.0 |
| Cetane number, min. | 51 | 51 | - |
| Density | 800-830 kg/m3 | 800-830 kg/m3 | 845 kg/m3 max. |
| Distillation | IBP, min. 180°C 95%, max. 340°C | IBP, min. 180°C 95%, max. 340°C | 95%, max. 360°C |
| Aromatics, max. | 5% | 20% | - |
| PAH, max. | 0% | 0.1% V/V | 8.0 % m/m |
| Sulfur, max. | 10 mg/kg | 10 mg/kg | 10 mg/kg |
| FAME, max. | 7.0% V/V | 7.0% V/V | 7.0% V/V |
| Manganese, max. | 2 mg/L | 2 mg/L | 2 mg/L |
Prior to 2011 when the 10 mg/kg diesel fuel sulfur limit became effective in Europe, these three diesel fuel classes were also distinguished by different sulfur limits. The limits were 10 mg/kg for EC 1 and 50 mg/kg for EC2. At the time of its introduction, back in 1991, the EC1 diesel was the first ultra low sulfur diesel fuel in the world.
There are also two environmental classes for gasoline in Sweden. Environmental class 2 is equivalent to EN 228 while environmental class 1 has a lower limit on olefins (13.0 % V/V versus 18.0 % V/V for EC 2), may not contain phosphorus or ash forming substances and has an intake valve and fuel injector cleanliness requirement.
The act also has requirements for several alternative fuels including ethanol for use in spark ignition engines, ethanol for use in compression ignition engines, FAME and synthetic diesel fuels.
Environmental class 1 of both diesel and gasoline represents the largest volumes of those fuels sold on the Swedish market. Consumption of these is encouraged through lower taxes. In 2022, unleaded gasoline 95 EC 1 represented about the 95.5% of the total sales of gasoline in Sweden and diesel EC 1 represented about 98.5% of the total sales of diesel in Sweden [6239].