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A joint industry study was carried out to determine whether or not the use of up to 100 ppm Drag Reducing Additive (DRA) in diesel fuel would result in any short or medium term harmful effects. The study concluded that under normal circumstances, the DRA-treated diesel delivered to end-user equipment should be sheared to an acceptable level that will not cause problems, e.g. poor low temperature operability. Within the medium term, the use of DRA should not result in unusual deposits in the combustion chamber or the fuel injection systems. Based on these findings, the technical committee has approved the use of DRA in Transnorthern Pipeline, Ontario/Quebec, Canada.

Six fuels were blended to represent current and potential future quality Canadian diesel fuels, as defined by the Canadian General Standards Board. Steady state Caterpillar 3406 engine tests on these fuels showed that engine conditions, such as RFM and torque, have more influence than fuel quality on ignition delay and gaseous emissions. For example, increased cetane from 36 to 43 only slightly reduced nitrogen oxide emissions, while smoke, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions were unaffected. Ignition-improved and natural fuels of similar cetane and volatility provided equivalent cold starting performance and exhaust emissions. Reduced back-end volatility caused significantly more white smoke, but hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions were only slightly raised. A synthetic fuel essentially gave equivalent performance to a conventional fuel, except for slightly lower nitrogen oxides emissions.