Review

Fuel oils are very often used as a marine fuel. This fuel has to meet the relevant qualitative parameters according to the ISO 8217. Some of these parameters (density, viscosity) are used for basic characterization or categorization to the individual qualitative as well as economic classes. The stability of the marine fuel is very important and also very frequently discussed and monitored parameter. The standardised method for stability mentioned in ISO 8217 is Total Sediment according to the ISO 10307. This method has three possibilities for stability assessment (TS; TSP; TSA) differing in the sample preparation especially in ageing step. These procedures can provide different results depending on the origin and properties of the test sample. The reference test method shall be the Potential Total Sediment test (TSP). The article deals with describing and comparison of these procedures for Total Sediment assessment. TS; TSP and TSA are described and used for evaluation of fuel oils stability and their relationships are investigated.