Technical Committee Fuel Oils

Development of a New Stability Test Method for Bio Heating Oils

The capability of Low Sulphur Heating Oil (LSHO) or blends with alternative components for the long-term storage (i.e. several years) is defined as long-termstorage- stability. Several chemical/physical analysis and test methods for the examination of the thermo-oxidative stability of mineral oil based fuels are in place. These methods are unusable without any modifications for blends of Low Sulphur Heating Oils (LSHO) with alternative components. The long-term-storage-stability of different fuels could be completely different even if the initial stability after the production process was nearly the same. In prior research projects it was observed that different fuels showed different aging behaviour, not all stability parameters are changing at the same time during fuel aging. That is the reason why no dominant fuel aging parameter with the highest sensitivity to identify the initiation of fuel aging could be defined until now. Within the research project an accelerated aging test method was developed to evaluate the long-term-storage-stability of liquid fuels. The method enables a combined observation of different fuel aging parameters like acid formation, water formation, oxygen consumption (autoxidation) and sediment formation. The accelerated aging test method was validated to emulate the long-term-storage-stability of middle destillates and alternative blend components. Fuels could be differentiated regarding their long-term-storage-stability within operation times of 64 h.

The IGF project (17934 N) of the research association DGMK Deutsche Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Erdöl, Erdgas und Kohle e.V., Überseering 40, 22297 Hamburg was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy via the AiF within the framework of the programme for the promotion of joint industrial research (IGF) on the basis of a resolution of the German Bundestag.