Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
in 1981 ASTM opened a standards distribution center in Europe, and in 2001 changed its name to
ASTM International to reflect the range of ASTM activities (http://www.astm.org/HISTORY/index.
html). Currently, ASTM has more than 30,000 ASTM members from different sectors, such as pro-
ducers, users, consumers, government, and academia from more than 120 countries (http://www.
astm.org/ABOUT/aboutASTM.html).
The aim of ASTM International is to develop and provide voluntary consensus standards and
the related technical information and services that promote public health and safety, support the
protection and sustainability of the environment, and the overall quality of life; contribute to the
reliability of materials, products, systems, and services; and facilitate international, regional, and
national commerce (http://www.astm.org/NEWS/Mission2.html).
Biofuels is one of the domains in which ASTM International is active. So far, the ASTM D6751
standard specification for biodiesel fuel blend stock (B100) is only for biodiesel used in up to 20%
v/v blends (B20) and is not in neat form. If the neat biodiesel meets ASTM D6751, and the base
diesel, used for the B20 blend, meets the relevant standards (ASTM D975), then the final product is
acceptable for use (Table 9.A2).
ASTM D4806 is currently the standard specification for denatured fuel ethanol used as a blend
with gasoline to fuel an automotive spark-ignition engine. For a high percentage (75-85% v/v) of
denatured bioethanol into the fuel blend (Ed75-Ed85), the Ed75-Ed85 should meet the property
limits set in ASTM D5798. These blends are for the fuel of FFVs and limit change according to
the season; that is, standards of class 1 for summer grade, class 2 for interseasonal, and class 3 for
winter grade (RFA 2009) (Table 9.A3).
9.4.2.1.3 European Committee for Standardization
CEN aims to “facilitate the exchange of goods and services by eliminating technical barriers” (CEN
2008) in Europe. Despite this, CEN is mainly addressed to the European market, and its close col-
laboration with ISO [i.e., more than 30% of CEN standards are identical to international standards
(CEN 2008)] promotes the adoption of CEN standards from countries beyond Europe.
Currently, CEN has 30 national members with more than 60,000 technical experts as well as
business federations and consumer and other social interest organizations (http://www.cen.eu/
cenorm/aboutus/index.asp). Through May 2009, CEN had produced 13,501 documents, 1144 of
these in 2008 (http://goo.gl/Hkldt).
Regarding biodiesel in Europe, EN 14214 describes the specifications required for automotive
fuels—FAMEs for diesel engines. These standards concerns B100 and biodiesel in diesel blends.
When biodiesel is blended with diesel, the final fuel should meet the diesel standards (i.e., EN 590)
that allow no more than 5% v/v of FAME into the blend. CEN is planning to increase this limit to
10% v/v; however, this has to be first incorporated in the EU fuel legislation (Table 9.A2).
Concerning bioethanol, EN 15376* sets the specifications for automotive blends of ethanol in
gasoline. However, this blend should contain a maximum of 5% v/v bioethanol to meet the EN 228
gasoline specification. Because of the Renewable Energy Directive [COM (2008) 19]
on the promo-
tion of the use of energy from renewable sources that set a target of 10% v/v biofuels in transport in
each member state (COM 2008), this limit is planned to be increased (Saunders 2009). Before that,
the impact assessment of this increase of the percentage has to precede and to satisfy any concern
(http://goo.gl/SRKoI) (Table 9.A3).
So far, CEN has a workshop agreement
†
on E85 specifications for use in FFV. This agreement
has already been applied in Germany and the Netherlands (Maniatis et al. 2009).
At the same time, some EU member countries have set additional standards. Their scope is to
cover categories of bioethanol used as automotive fuel that are out of the range of EU regulation.
Some examples are
*
EN 15376:2007 Automotive Fuels—Ethanol As a Blending Component for Petrol—Requirements and Test Methods.
†
This is one step before the standards setting (http://goo.gl/RipqI).
