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Old 06-02-2002, 04:12 PM
Wayne Lindholm Wayne Lindholm is offline
Human Spirit
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 56
Quickyl checking the Crystal Flash website shows they operate stationstores only in Indiana. < www.crystal-flash.com >

Also, if you believe the Michigan Crystal Flash outlets were carrying Koch petroleum products in the past, that may have come to an end with the sale of the Michigan outlets to Marathon - just an educated guess. Marathon is now part of Marathon Ashland Petroleum. < www.mapllc.com > On the refinery side of the business, MAP is a competitor to Koch (now called Flint Hills Resources). < www.fhr.com >

From my research into premium diesel availability in Minnesota, I have learned that Koch/fhr markets an excellent suite of premium diesel fuels. < www.premiumdiesel.com > Branded under the Artic, Gold, Gold Plus, Soy and Soy Plus brand names. When these products are stocked by a retailer regardless of the station brand, the diesel pumps will oftentimes carry the type of Koch premium fuel being pumped at the time. i.e. I think Koch is doing a nice job of building 'brand awareness' for their premium diesel products.

Here is some discussion I also shared on the TDIClub forum under 'fuels and lubricants':

Today, I talked with Don Howe with Koch/Flint Hills Resources refinery in Pine Bend, MN. I learned a bunch about Koch diesel products:

1. The change in names for the Koch Premium Diesel fuels (from Soy 50 and Gold 50) to Soy Plus and Gold Plus was due to a change in the test method used to measure Cetane. Koch is now required to show a cetane range, not a specific number - hence, the fhr <www.premiumdiesel.com> website now indicates a cetane range of 47-50 for their Gold Plus. I mentioned to Don the fhr website indicates their Soy Plus is a 50 cetane rating - he said that needs to be updated to indicate a range, same as the Gold Plus. Don said the current Gold Plus is the same product as the old label Gold 50. The change was in cetane test measurement methodology and name only.

Some additional comments I found interesting from Don:

1. Koch Soy diesel is currently a 1% soy oil blended into their fuel.

2. The cetane rating of Soy Plus is identical to Gold Plus - both 47-50 cetane range.

3. A Minnesota regulation did pass this session that mandates a 2% soy oil blend in all Minnesota Diesel starting 2005.

3.5 Ultra low sulpher diesel will be mandatory in 2006 and Koch is close to the new spec. now.

4. Koch definately makes a 40 cetane diesel commonly sold as low sulpher #2 and is the basic diesel sold at many outlets.

5. Koch's Gold diesel (not Plus) is a 45 cetane rating and contains cetane improvers from Koch.

NOTE: Don recommended DO NOT add further cetane improvers to the 45 cetane diesel (his opinion) this would be doubling up on cetane improvers and could cause injector clogging - Anyone have any experience or opinion on this??

6. Koch's Gold diesel 45 cetane is sold at all Kwik Trip stations in WI, MN, and IA - even though they don't label it as Gold.
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Share your knowledge -

Wayne
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