Why test fuel?

There are few guarantees of quality in the fuel market. Fuel may contain impurities, may not meet required specifications or may contain prohibited amounts of pollutants such as sulphur. Making sure the fuel you burn is the fuel you ordered is simple risk management.

This will avoid engine damage. Avoid delays and disputes and avoid breaching air pollution limits Used oil analysis is comparable to a medical analysis with a blood test. Like blood, lubricating oil contains a good deal of information about the body it circulates in. Wear of metallic parts, for example, produces a lot of minute particles, which are carried by the lubricant. These small metal particles can give information about the machine elements that are wearing.

Motor oil is a type of liquid oil used for lubrication by various kinds of motors, especially internal combustion engines. Other benefits from using motor oil include cooling by carrying heat away from moving engine parts and often include cleaning and corrosion inhibition in internal combustion engines. The major fraction of the majority of motor oils is derived from crude oil. In engines there are contacting parts which move against each other at high speeds, often for prolonged periods of time. Such rubbing motion causes friction, absorbing otherwise useful power produced by the motor and converting the energy to useless heat. Friction also wears away the contacting surfaces of those parts, which could lead to lower efficiency and wearing out of the motor. Lubricating oil makes a film between surfaces of parts moving against each other so as to minimize direct contact between them decreasing friction, wear, and production of excessive heat. Also motor oil carries away heat from moving parts. Materials tend to become softer and less abrasion-resistant at high temperatures. Some engines have an additional oil cooler. Coating metal parts with oil also keeps them from being exposed to oxygen, which inhibits their oxidation at elevated operating temperatures. Corrosion inhibitors may also be added to the motor oil. Many motor oils also have detergent additives to help keep the engine clean and minimize oil sludge build-up. Rubbing of metal engine parts inevitably produces some microscopic metallic particles from the wearing of the surfaces. Sludge also accumulates in the engine. Such particles could circulate in the oil and grind against the moving parts, causing erosion and wear.

The acidity of an oil shows whether the oil is oxidised as a result of operation at high temperature, if there is a high percentage of moisture, or whether the oil has been in service for too long, and can be detected by various types of analysis, which include the tried and tested methods of potentiometric and Karl Fischer titration. An important test carried out on oil is the determination of the Total Base Number (TBN), which is a measurement of the reserve alkalinity of an oil to neutralize acids. The resulting quantity is determined as mg KOH/ (gram of lubricant). Analogously, Total Acid Number (TAN) is the measure of a lubricant's acidity.

Since 1943 Metrohm have led the world market in ion analysis. Metrohm are No1 in the world for potentiometric titrators and Karl Fischer moisture analysers and have been producing instrumentation for the oil industry since this date. With these many years of expertise in this field Metrohm have also developed many test methods for the petroleum market.

Only now have Metrohm been able to bring all these methods together into one convenient package. Metrohm Oil PAC offers you application know-how for immediate use at a very favorable price. Metrohm Oil PAC methods...

• are ASTM-conform;
• contain additional valuable practical know-how not mentioned in the standards;
• show equations/ reaction mechanisms and titration curves for all methods;
• contain the instrument parameters for Titrators for each method;
• can be directly loaded into Titrinos via Memory Card or by Metrodata VESUV;
• save time & money because you do not necessarily have to purchase
• and study the ASTM methods;
• are also suitable for use as Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in your lab!

The Metrohm Oil PAC manual is provided in both printed form and as a PDF-file in which you can comfortably carry out searches and navigate. Oil PAC contains 1-3 versions of each of 25 key applications in the oil products sector (37 methods in all). All methods can be loaded into Titrinos in a very simple manner. In detail the Oil PAC package contains:

A stable application file with practical index and 25 methods clearly arranged in 8 sections.

All 25 Oil PAC methods with a detailed description (general information, accessories, equations / reaction mechanisms, comments, method parameters for Titrinos, titration curve(s) for each method version, reagents, calculations, literature sources).

Memory card containing all methods for 785 and 751 Titrinos (from program version 20).

Metrodata VESUV 3.0 CD-ROM (demo version for 100 days) for data transmission with 716, 736, 751 and 785 Titrinos; additional demo versions of all Metrodata PC Software.

Oil PAC CD-ROM with

• the Oil PAC manual in PDF-format;
• the methods file for Metrodata VESUV;
• the Metrohm Application Bulletins referred to in the Oil PAC-manual ;
• instructions for use for Metrodata VESUV in PDF-format;
• Adobe Acrobat Reader for reading the PDF-files.

With this collection of methods almost all the titrimetric analysis required within the petroleum industry are covered. For more information on oil analysis methods and instrumentation please contact Metrohm UK Ltd.