Development Lubr ic ants

Lubricity Characteristics
of Marine Distillate Fuels
This article from Innospec Fuel Specialties, Ellesmere Port, UK, and Intertek Lintec
ShipCare Services, Darlington, UK, examines the lubricity characteristics of marine distillate
fuels available today in relation to the requirements and limits imposed in ISO8217:2010.
It will estimate expected failure rates and also asses the perceived relationship between
lubricity, sulphur content and viscosity.

58

a ut h o r s

Ian Crutchley

is Technical Co-ordinator
Marine Specialties (EMEA)
at Innospec Fuel Specialties
based in Ellesmere Port (UK).

Michael Green

is Technical Manager at Intertek

Lintec ShipCare Services
based in Darlington (UK).

Fuel Lubricity

Lubricity has been recognised as a potential quality issue when

dealing with low sulphur distillate fuels, and a limit has therefore
been introduced into the latest version of the norm ISO8217:2010
Classification and Specification of Marine Fuels [1]. The limit
specified is a maximum of 520m WSD (Wear Scar Diameter) as
measured by the High Frequency Reciprocating Rig (HFRR)
method per the ISO12156.01 [2] norm. This limit applies only to
fuels with less than 0.05 % (500 ppm) sulphur.
HFRR is the standard way to measure the lubricity of fuels.
Typical HFRR test machines are shown in 1. In the HFRR test, a
sample of the fluid under test is placed in a test reservoir which
is maintained at the specified test temperature. A fixed steel ball
is held in a vertically mounted chuck and forced against a horizontally mounted stationary steel plate with an applied load. The
test ball is oscillated at a fixed frequency and stroke length while
the interface with the plate is fully immersed in the fluid reservoir. The metallurgies of the ball and plate, temperature, load frequency and stroke length are specified. The ambient conditions
are used to correct the size of the wear scar generated on the test
ball to a standard set of ambient conditions. The corrected WSD
is a measure of the fluid lubricity.
In general, it remains the case that lubricity is little understood
in the marine sector, with many misconceptions existing in the
aftermath of the publication of the new specification. In the early
1990s, when low sulphur diesel fuels were introduced to the
automotive market, lubricity was likewise little understood and
field issues rapidly followed, involving excessive and rapid fuel
pump wear. All told, approximately 65 million pumps were
reported to be affected. After much research into lubricity, automotive diesel fuel specifications worldwide introduced lubricity
limits by the using the HFRR method. This issue was resolved in
part, and continues to be further resolved, by the addition of
lubricity improving fuel additives. As with automotive fuel
pumps, marine fuel pumps also rely on the fuel as the lubrication
medium. Two distinct regimes of lubrication are at work in a fuel

1 Two HFRR units

in use simultaneously
at Innospecs Ellesmere
Port facility
industrial Special Edition MTZ I August 2012

59

Development Lubr ic ants

pump hydrodynamic lubrication, where

an oil film separates moving metal surfaces, and boundary lubrication where
clearances are minimal and no oil film
exists. Lubricity is related to boundary
lubrication. Natural lubricity is provided
by the polar species in the fuel such as
nitrogen and oxygen. In low sulphur
fuels, where hydro-processing has been
necessary at the refinery to reduce sulphur, these species can be removed,
resulting in a fuel with poor natural
lubricity.
Charting Lubricity Globally

Innospec Limited, based in Ellesmere

Port, UK a specialist in fuel additives and
the Lintec Testing Services Ltd arm of
Intertek Lintec Shipcare Services, a fuel
testing specialist, collaborated in a project
concerning marine fuels lubricity. Having
been involved in the development of the
HFRR test method more than two decades
ago, Innospec operates many HFRR test
units within its own facilities. For its part,
Lintec Testing Services Ltd has access to
the numerous commercial marine fuel oil
samples it analyses on a daily basis across
the world at its facilities in Darlington,
UK, Houston Texas, USA, Shanghai, China
and Singapore. Innospecs expertise in
lubricity testing, combined with the many
samples to which Lintec has access, facilitated a collaboration on this subject. Both
companies participate in CIMACs working group for fuels, where the data from
the project was presented in April 2012.
The main reason for conducting a
project such as this was to try to identify
whether specific fuels from specific ports
and regions across the globe were particu-

2 Overall distribution of WSD

larly likely to pose an issue as far as lubricating quality is concerned. As previously

noted, the preconceptions regarding the
link between sulphur content and natural
lubricity would suggest that issues would
be more prevalent in those areas where
legislative requirements dictated an
increased demand for low sulphur fuels.
The initial project was only anticipated to
run to tens of samples in order to gain a
general overview of the potential numbers
of problem fuels and the issues that could
be expected when using Ultra Low Sulphur Distillate Fuels. However, the full
scope of the project was only fully realised once testing had actually begun.
For example, the introduction of the
0.10 % m/m sulphur limit within EU
ports, on 1st January 2010, further
increased the ever growing demand for

distillate fuels. As a result the industry

was forced to step up production and
refining processes to meet this demand.
However, as the call for greater quantities
of low sulphur fuels to be made available
strengthened, it increased the likelihood
that the end product would be subjected
to some form of additional treatment.
Phases One and Two

Phase one of the project was initiated in

October 2009 with a test scope of only 20
low sulphur distillate samples. The project
requirements were such that the samples
to be included were those that would
need to be assessed for lubricating quality
under the amended ISO 8217:2010 Marine
Fuel Specification (i.e. sulphur content
less than 0.05 % m/m or 500 ppm).

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60

Only eight of the tested samples showed

a WSD in excess of the 520 m limit as
stipulated in the ISO 8217:2010 marine
fuel specification.
As shown in 3, when examining these
results in relation to the overall sulphur
content of the fuels, the picture becomes
somewhat clearer. Of the 182 samples
tested 14 had sulphur content greater
than 1000 ppm. Of these 14 samples none
showed a WSD in excess of 520 m with
the highest measuring 443 m (sulphur
content of 0.35 % m/m).
During the testing of the samples,
58 fuels showed measured sulphur
content of greater than 500 ppm but
less than 1000 ppm. From this selection
of fuels, none showed an outright
failure. However, one sample did provide
a WSD result of 520 m exactly (sulphur
content 0.07 % m/m) whereas another
six samples could be considered close
calls, with WSD results of greater than
460 m.
When examining the remaining 110
fuels (sulphur content less than 500 ppm)

3 Correlation between sulphur content and lubricity

The results obtained proved to be of

great interest and hence a second phase
was implemented with a further 20 test
samples being examined. Again, the
results witnessed during Phase Two
prompted further interest and discussion.
As a result the project continued to
progress and in all a total of 182 samples
were tested.
During the time the project was underway the initial scope was regularly reassessed, such that it no longer simply
reflected fuels with a sulphur content of
less than 500 ppm. Fuels with sulphur
content up to 1000 ppm were also
included, to examine whether the
imposed limit of 500 ppm was in fact suitable and could be considered a defining
point. In addition, the project also grew to
take in a suggested link between lubricity
and tested viscosity.
However, it is vital to note that the
process by which the fuels were selected
was simply based on the final tested sulphur content in conjunction with the port
and region in which the fuel was supplied. This was done to ensure that the
focus did not simply fall on one specific
area of the world and that all the relevant
key bunker areas were examined.

and the associated WSD results. From

the testing conducted it is clear to see
that the majority of samples showed
a WSD in the region of 341 to 400 m.

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Analytical Data

To provide a greater insight into the

spread of data seen, the graph in 2 highlights the total number of samples tested
industrial Special Edition MTZ I August 2012

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61

Development Lubr icants

4 Correlation between viscosity and lubricity

DOI: 10.1365/s40353-012-0041-x

5 Typical response from the use of an additive

eight genuine failures (7.2 %) and 24

fuels with a tested WSD of greater than
460 m (21.8 %) were seen.
The examination of tested viscosities
of the fuels within the project also
showed little in the way of correlation
to the overall lubricity, highlighted in 4.
Lubricity improver additives were
applied to several of the poor lubricity
samples. These included Innospecs
own Octamar LI-5 Plus multifunctional
marine distillate fuel additive, designed
to counter many of the issues commonly
associated with modern distillate fuels.
Its performance has been verified inde-

62

pendently by Lloyds Register. As shown

in 5, all fuels responded well to the
treatment.
Summary

The results of the joint Innospec Lintec

Testing Services project demonstrate that
it is a misconception to link the lubricity
of a fuel directly to its sulphur content.
Rather, lubricity is associated with the
level of hydro-processing which has taken
place at the refinery to achieve the final
sulphur content. The higher the sulphur
content of the crude oil used, the more

hydro-processing is required. This

refinery process, whilst necessary, has
the side effect of removing the polar
species from the fuel, reducing the fuels
natural lubricity. This can be clearly
seen by the lack of correlation between
lubricity and sulphur content in the
ranges tested in this study, as shown in
c. Naturally, there is an indirect rela
tionship between lubricity and sulphur,
but clearly sulphur content should not
be used as the sole criterion for its
estimation.
In terms of viscosity, again no direct
correlation is evident in the ranges
tested. It is true to say that, as viscosity
reduces, lubrication will move from a
hydrodynamic regime, through a mixed
lubrication regime and then to a boundary regime where lubricity is critical.
However it is an oversimplification to
link the two directly, as many other
factors are involved in this transition.
The only safe way to establish the
lubricity characteristics of a fuel is to test
it by the HFRR method.
The requirement in ISO8217:2010 that
the lubricity limit applies only to fuels
with less than 500 ppm sulphur is questionable, based on the fact that several
samples with significantly higher sulphur
contents were tested and gave results at
or near the limit. Although this study did
not find any out and out failures of fuels
with above 500 ppm sulphur, it is known
from automotive fuel experience that
such a situation can arise in extreme
cases. Additionally, lubricity improver
additives demonstrated significant
improvements in lubricity.
It should be noted that in most
cases fuel purchasers are still specifying
ISO8217:2005 in their agreements, rather
than the new 2010 specification. In this
case lubricity will not be tested at all,
which may be perceived as a considerable risk.
The use of low sulphur gas oils for
sustained periods is still relatively low,
but will become considerably more widespread from 2015. Ship owners and operators are urged to be vigilant.
References

[1] ISO8217:2010 Petroleum Products

Fuels (Class F) Specification of Marine Fuels
[2] ISO12156-1:2006 Diesel Fuel
Assessment of Lubricity using the High frequency
Reciprocating Rig

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