VPS offers extended fuel testing services

The firm’s Additional Protection Service is intended to offer a residual fuel and a distillate fuel package, including ISO8217 test parameters.

The package has been developed to address fuel quality issues in response to the introduction of new fuels, cutter stocks, blending agents and additives, to ensure fuels comply with the MARPOL Annex VI 0.50% sulphur cap from 1 January 2020. Industry experts have noted present versions of ISO 8217 cannot identify all forms of contamination.

AVS has seven Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) systems at its four laboratories. It also employs a range of sample pre-treatment methods, including headspace, vacuum distillation, acid extraction, esterification and other methods.

Recent high-profile fuel quality cases including the contamination of fuel with phenolic compounds in Houston, which led to fuel pump and injector failures. Market participants note that the proportion of cat fines in low sulphur fuel oils provided by third-party blenders in some parts of the world may increase after 1 January 2020.