Recently the ASTM standard test method (ASTM D8144-18)―“The standard test method for separation and determination of aromatics, non-aromatics and fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) fractions in middle distillates by solid phase extraction and gas chromatography”―drafted and drawn up by the SINOPEC Research Institute of Petroleum Processing (RIPP), has been officially approved and issued by the American Society for Testing and Materials International Organization. This ASTM test method can determine the contents of aromatics, saturates and FAME in diesel fuel, and biodiesel blendstock,featuring rapid analysis speed, simple operation and environmentally friendliness, and can be extensively adopted in the production, application, quality control,and detection of diesel fuel and biodiesel blendstock products.

With the increasingly stringent environmental regulations and the extensive application of biodiesel and other alternative energy products, the precise determination of aromatics, saturates and FAME contents in diesel fuel,and biodiesel blendstock becomes a pressing need of the petroleum products manufacture and environmental protection activities. Currently, the conventional analysis methods are suffering from the complicated operating procedures, high solvent consumption, and long analytical cycle, which cannot separate and determine the aromatics and FAME in the same time.

To secure a leading technical advantage in the world,RIPP by integrating the solid phase extraction with the internal standard gas chromatography through optimizing the chromatographic separation conditions can achieve within 30 minutes the high-efficiency separation and determination of saturates, aromatics, and FAME contents in diesel fuel and biodiesel blendstocks to overcome the shortcomings associated with the traditional tedious steps of separation (such as the column chromatography), the hazards caused by toxic solvents, the time-consuming operation, and the hard work load.

Starting from 2005, this analytical technique has been adopted in China’s Petrochemical Industry Standard Method SH/T 0606―2005 for determination of hydrocarbon composition in middle distillates (by the mass spectrometric method) as the prioritized method for separation of hydrocarbon components in diesel fuel for detecting aromatics and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAH), which has been unanimously accepted and endorsed by domestic clients based on their many years of practice.

In the course of formulating this ASTM standard test method, the research team of RIPP has optimized the test reagents and test conditions, verified and specified the separation efficiency of the key apparatus―the solid phase extraction column, and made systematic analysis and verification of the precision of this test method in a bid to put forward specification requirements for the quality control of this method. The draft of this standard test method,submitted by RIPP after being subject to multiple revisions and verification of test results, was officially approved and issued by the ASTM International Organization in March 2018 and was published in April 2018.