This European Standard specifies a test method for the determination of the content of mono-aromatic, di-aromatic and tri+-aromatic hydrocarbons in diesel fuels that may contain fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) up to 5 % (V/V) and petroleum distillates in the boiling range from 150 °C to 400 °C. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons content is calculated from the sum of di-aromatic and tri+-aromatic hydrocarbons and the total content of aromatic compounds is calculated from the sum of the individual aromatic hydrocarbon types.
Compounds containing sulfur, nitrogen and oxygen may interfere in the determination; mono-alkenes do not interfere, but conjugated di-alkenes and polyalkenes, if present, may do so.
The precision statement of the test method has been established for diesel fuels with and without FAME blending components, with a mono-aromatic content in the range from 6 % (m/m) to 30 % (m/m), a di-aromatic content from 1 % (m/m) to 10 % (m/m), a tri+-aromatic content from 0 % (m/m) to 2 % (m/m), a polycyclic aromatic content from 1 % (m/m) to 12 % (m/m), and a total aromatic content from 7 % (m/m) to 42 % (m/m).
NOTE 1 For the purpose of this European Standard, the terms “% (m/m)” and "% (V/V)" are used to represent the mass fraction, and the volume fraction of a material respectively.
NOTE 2 By convention, the aromatic hydrocarbon types are defined on the basis of their elution characteristics from the specified liquid chromatography column relative to model aromatic compounds. Their quantification is performed using an external calibration with a single aromatic compound for each of them, which may or may not be representative of the aromatics present in the sample. Alternative techniques and test methods may classify and quantify individual aromatic hydrocarbon types differently.