Continued Evaluation of Diesel Fuel Lubricity by Pump Rig Tests

Diesel fuel lubricity has continued to be a topic of interest for the suppliers of diesel engines, diesel fuel injection equipment, diesel fuel and diesel fuel additives. The term “lubricity” has become commonly used to mean the ability of a diesel fuel to prevent or minimize wear in diesel fuel injection equipment systems that rely on the fuel to provide lubrication. Distributor and rotary type injection pumps are examples of systems that rely totally on the fuel for lubrication. These systems are commonly used in light and medium duty diesel engines.

Shell Canada has been investigating the lubricity performance of diesel fuels for a number of years. We have continued to evaluate the lubricity performance of various diesel test fuels and additives in a specifically designed distributor type pump rig that has been described previously (1, 2, 3).

The most recent results from 49 test fuels (including 12 base fuels) from the distributor pump tests are presented, discussed and related to the test fuel properties, including lubricity as measured in a number of current lab bench tests.