Calidad del diesel de Costa Rica entre los años 2006-2010

Abstract

This study explores the behavior and evolution on the quality of automobile diesel distributed in Costa Rica during the 2006-2010 period. Traditionally, fuel behavior studies are done on univariate and bivariate statistical methods but fail to provide sufficient information to describe the relationship between the attributes and multidimensionality of the individuals’ behavior information. To overcome this limitation, a principal component analysis (PCA) is performed using the data gathered during the five years of the study. Additionally, a PCA was made for each individual year of the study to determine the evolution of diesel quality. Based on the analysis, it is found that sulfur concentration is the variable that most influences the behavior of individuals and the other variables, and because its progressive elimination in the fuel, its influence is canceled off during the last two years of the study. At the same time there is a decreasing in the fuel distillation temperatures, showing a positive evolution of the diesel quality distributed nationwide.