IP 440: Liquid petroleum products - Determination of contamination in middle distillates

Overview:

Scope

This European Standard specifies a method for the determination of the content of undissolved substances, referred to as total contamination, in middle distillates, in diesel fuels containing up to 30 % (V/V) fatty acid methylesters (FAME), and in neat FAME. The working range is from 12 mg/kg to 30 mg/kg and it was established in an interlaboratory study by applying EN ISO 4259 [1].

This European Standard in general applies to products having a kinematic viscosity not exceeding 8 mm²/s at 20 °C, or 5 mm²/s at 40 °C, e.g. diesel fuel as specified in EN 590 [2] and FAME as in EN 14214 [3].

This test method may be used for diesel fuels containing more than 30 % (V/V) FAME and for petroleum products having a kinematic viscosity exceeding 8 mm²/s at 20 °C, or 5 mm²/s at 40 °C, however, in such cases the precision of the test method has not been defined.

NOTE 1 Excessive contamination in a fuel system can give rise to premature blocking of filters and/or hardware failure, and is therefore undesirable.

NOTE 2 For the purposes of this European Standard, the term '% (V/V)' is used to represent the volume fraction, φ, of a material.