New Standard Helps Determine Fuel Suitability for Engines

A new ASTM International standard will help determine how suitable a gaseous fuel is for use in internal combustion engines in both mobile and stationary applications. ASTM’s committee on gaseous fuels (D03) published the new standard, which will soon be published as D8221.

The new standard will be used to determine the calculated methane number (MNc) of gaseous fuels to be used in internal combustion engines. The MNc is a rating index of a gaseous fuel’s resistance to autoignition, also called knock, when compared to a reference methane/hydrogen mixture. Fuels covered by the standard can be from traditional geological or renewable resources and include pipeline gas, compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and renewable natural gas.

“The MNc will be useful to entities producing, transporting, storing, dispensing, measuring, and using commercially available natural gas products intended for internal combustion engines and engine manufacturers to describe acceptable fuel quality for their engines,” says ASTM International member Robin J. Bremmer, director of advanced alternative fuels at Cummins Inc.

Bremmer notes that the standard may also be cited by ASTM and other standards and regulation organizations when there is a need to define gaseous fuel quality and its possible MNc limitation values.