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A proposed ASTM International Standard will help characterize the quality of diesel fuels and biodiesel blends. The standard (WK51775) is being developed by the committee on petroleum products, liquid fuels, and lubricants (DO2). The proposed standard will be used to separate and determine the contents of aromatics, non-aromatics, and fatty acid methyl esters in middle distillates, including biodiesel blend with up to 20 percent by volume of FAME. “The knowledge of total contents of saturates and aromatics in the middle distillates are useful to investigate the effects of petroleum processing on production of various finished fuels,” says ASTM International member Yang Tingting, a Senior Engineer at the SINOPEC Research Institute of Petroleum Processing in, China. Tingting notes that the method described in the standard is time-saving and environment-friendly. The proposed method could be used for refinery plants, diesel fuel producers, and analytical laboratories.