Department of Standardisation Established as the Youngest Department at the DGMK

In order to do justice to the increasing complexity of the tasks and the importance of Standardisation within the DGMK e.V., the Department of Standardisation was established as the youngest department. It accommodates the Technical Committee Mineral Oil and Fuel Standardization (FAM) of the DIN standards committee Material testing (NMP). The FAM secretariat has been affiliated with the DGMK in terms of organisation, finances and personnel since 1978, but its work is bound to the DIN guidelines.

The FAM is responsible for the development and maintenance of requirements and testing standards for petroleum and related products, ranging from natural and biogas, LNG and liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) to the "classic" liquid fuels such as petrol, diesel and heating oil as well as biofuels, lubricating oils and greases, and fuels for maritime applications. Approximately 600 experts from industry, associations, authorities and research institutes are involved in these tasks in the FAM in 20 working committees and 7 subcommittees, as well as a large number of working groups. More than 600 standards (DIN, DIN EN, DIN EN ISO, DIN ISO and ISO) belong to the FAM's area of responsibility. In addition, the FAM cooperates with related subject areas (gas, mechanical engineering) by co-sponsoring standards.

Furthermore, the FAM represents German standardisation in international bodies such as CEN, ISO and ASTM. Many working groups at CEN and ISO are headed by German experts and supported and accompanied by the FAM secretariat.

The standardisation work includes the development and support of requirements standards with the associated test standards as well as basic standards. Existing standards must be adapted to the current state of the art and new standards must be developed according to current requirements so that products can be clearly described and tested according to generally applicable rules. Increasingly, projects on new topics are also moving into focus; in addition to classic bioproducts such as ethanol, E85, biodiesel and biolubricants, attention is also increasingly being paid to other alternative products such as e-fuels and fuels for applications in electromobility.