Significance and Use
In the United States, high sulfur content (defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)) middle distillate products and diesel fuel used for off-road purposes, other than aviation turbine fuel, are required by government agencies to contain red dye. The dye concentration required to be present in high sulfur and off-road diesel products is regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Internal Revenue Service, respectively.
Some fuels that are readily exchanged in the market have a color specification. The color of the base fuel is masked by the presence of the red dye. This test method provides a means of estimating the base color of Number 1 and Number 2 diesel fuel and heating oil in the presence of red dye.
The test method provides a means to indicate conformance to contractual and legal requirements.
1. Scope
1.1 This test method covers the determination of the red dye concentration of diesel fuel and heating oil and the estimation of the ASTM color of undyed and red-dyed diesel fuel and heating oil. The test method is appropriate for use with diesel fuel and heating oil of Grades 1 and 2 described in Specifications D396, D975, D2880 and D3699. Red dye concentrations are determined at levels equivalent to 0.1 to 20 mg/L of Solvent Red 26 in samples with ASTM colors ranging from 0.5 to 5. The ASTM color of the base fuel of red-dyed samples with concentration levels equivalent to 0.1 to 20 mg/L of Solvent Red 26 is estimated for the ASTM color range from 0.5 to 5. The ASTM color of undyed samples is estimated over the ASTM color range of 0.5 to 5.
1.2 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as standard. No other units of measurement are included in this standard.
1.3 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.
2. Referenced Documents (purchase separately) 
The documents listed below are referenced within the subject standard but are not provided as part of the standard.
ASTM Standards
D396 Specification for Fuel Oils
D975 Specification for Diesel Fuel Oils
D1500 Test Method for ASTM Color of Petroleum Products (ASTM Color Scale)
D2880 Specification for Gas Turbine Fuel Oils
D3699 Specification for Kerosine
D4052 Test Method for Density, Relative Density, and API Gravity of Liquids by Digital Density Meter
D4057 Practice for Manual Sampling of Petroleum and Petroleum Products
D4177 Practice for Automatic Sampling of Petroleum and Petroleum Products
D6045 Test Method for Color of Petroleum Products by the Automatic Tristimulus Method
D6708 Practice for Statistical Assessment and Improvement of Expected Agreement Between Two Test Methods that Purport to Measure the Same Property of a Material
E203 Test Method for Water Using Volumetric Karl Fischer Titration
E1655 Practices for Infrared Multivariate Quantitative Analysis
E2056 Practice for Qualifying Spectrometers and Spectrophotometers for Use in Multivariate Analyses, Calibrated Using Surrogate Mixtures
Keywords
ASTM color; diesel fuel, heating oil; red dye concentration; visible spectrophotometry; ASTM color scale; Diesel engine fuel oils; Fiber optic spectrochemical analysis; Heating fuel oils; Red dye combination; Spectrophotometry--atomic absorption (petroleum); Visible spectrophotometry;
ICS Code
ICS Number Code 71.040.50 (Physicochemical methods of analysis)
DOI: 10.1520/D6756-10
ASTM International is a member of CrossRef.
Citing ASTM Standards
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