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Introduction
Salvatore J. Rand1
TECHNOLOGY IS UNDERGOING ACCELERATING change. No longer do people have to wait months or even years for analytical methods to be submitted to ASTM International, tested, and voted for approval. The response of the various committees of ASTM International to new developments in the industrial and petroleum industries, and to unexpected occurrences in the field, is both swift and focused. It is because of this unprecedented and exponential increase in new testing methods that Manual 1 is being revised only 6 years after its prior publication. Committee D02 on Petroleum Products and Lubricants has assumed the responsibility of revising Manual on Significance of Tests for Petroleum Products (ASTM Manual Series: MNL 1), although other national and international standards organizations contribute significantly to the development of standard test methods for petroleum products. These organizations include the Energy Institute (EI), formerly known as the Institute of Petroleum in the United Kingdom, the Deutsches Institut fu r Normung (DIN) in Germany, the Association Franaise de Normalisation (AFNOR) in France, the Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) in Japan, the CEN (European Committee for Standardization), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Selected test methods from these organizations have been cross-referenced where relevant with ASTM International standards in selected chapters in this publication. There are discussions presently in progress to harmonize many standard test methods so they are technically equivalent to one another. The chapters in this manual are not intended to be research papers or exhaustive treatises of a particular field. The purpose of the discussions herein is to answer two questions: What are the relevant tests that are done on various petroleum products and why do we perform these particular tests? All tests are designed to measure properties of a product such that the quality of that product may be described. I consider a workable definition of a quality product to be that which meets agreed-on specifications. It is not necessary that the quality of a product be judged by its high purity, although it may very well be, but merely that it meets specifications previously agreed on among buyers, sellers, regulators, transferors, etc. The various chapters in this publication discuss individual or classes of petroleum products and describe the standardized testing that must be done on those products to assure all parties involved that they are dealing with quality products. Since publication of the previous edition of the manual, not only has the number available but also the type of some petroleum products undergone dramatic changes. The result is that most products have had changes incorporated into

MNL1-EB/May 2010

their methods of test, and that these new procedures have been standardized and accepted into specifications as required. The generic petroleum products discussed in this eighth edition of Manual 1 are similar to those products described in the chapters of the previous edition. All chapters with one exception have been updated to reflect new specification and testing standards, where applicable. Chapter 21, Methods for the Environmental Testing of Petroleum Products, has been reprinted in its entirety from the previous edition because the test procedures and protocols have been essentially unchanged and the discussion of toxicity and biodegradation of petroleum products is relevant to todays products. In the discussion of some of the various petroleum products, selected sections of chapters have been retained from the seventh edition for the sake of completeness and to provide more complete background information. The authors of the chapters in the seventh edition have been credited in the footnotes to the appropriate chapters where necessary. This edition has been enlarged by the inclusion of three new chapters to more fully reflect todays new products and new testing procedures, while the original 21 chapters contained in the seventh edition have been retained and updated. One new chapter, Biodiesel, has been added in response to the worldwide interest in developing renewable fuels. In addition to oxygenates, which are generally blended for gasoline engines, specifications for diesel fuel are being changed to incorporate materials of biological origin for the purpose of sustainability of fuels products. Government regulators are mandating the use of biodiesel fuels (biodiesels) and are presently in discussions with petroleum companies and engine manufacturers to ensure conformance with published timetables for the use of these fuels. Committee D02 has responded with the development of specifications and new test methods, as described in this new chapter. Another new chapter is entitled Synthetic Liquid Fuels. Again, due to the worldwide interest in diminishing dependence on traditional petroleum fuels, research in alternative fuels is being conducted by many organizations including petroleum companies. Specifications and test methods for synthetic fuels are continually being developed by Committee D02 to define the characteristics of these new materials, and these are discussed in the new chapter. The various petroleum products, including crude oils, have always been tested to determine the qualitative and quantitative nature of inorganic substances contained therein. This is discussed in the new chapter Determination of Inorganic Species in Petroleum Products and Lubricants. The techniques used are many and varied, the product and the nature and concentration of the inorganic species. In

Consultant, North Fort Myers, FL.

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Copyright 2010 by ASTM International www.astm.org

SIGNIFICANCE OF TESTS FOR PETROLEUM PRODUCTS

8TH EDITION

addition, a number of unexpected problems have recently arisen in the field regarding inorganic materials affecting the performance of petroleum fuels. One such problem is the deposition of silicon dioxide on gasoline engine parts due to the contamination of gasoline with very small quantities of silicon. Another problem is the inactivation of silver alloy sensing units in fuel tanks with the use of some low-sulfur gasoline fuels. Still another concern is the deposition of sulfate-containing materials in fuel metering systems and on fuel dispenser filters when certain ethanol batches are blended with gasoline. These problems require methods that measure inorganic contaminants at extremely low levels using new techniques, all of which are under development in Committee D02. Many of the test procedures described in this manual are newer correlative methods, which represent the way of the

future due to their simplicity, objectivity, economy, and, in many cases, portability. Quality assurance methods must be integrated into analytical procedures and protocols, so that we can demonstrate that these methods provide accuracy and precision equal to or better than the referee methods they supersede. A major thrust in analytical chemistry at the present is the development of methods that count individual molecules. While we have not yet achieved this level of sensitivity in the testing of petroleum products, when these new tools do arrive, and they will, we will be able to determine the concentration of an analyte in a petroleum product with 100% accuracy. The chapters that follow show that the technology associated with the testing of petroleum products is advancing at an increasingly rapid rate. They also demonstrate that ASTM International continues to be the foremost standardization organization in the world.