The next revision of the Worldwide Fuel Charter will resume in the near future, Anders Roj, chairman of the ACEA Working Group on Fuels and Lubricants, announced during the UNITI Mineral Oil Technology Congress in Stuttgart, Germany, this week. Roj is also the coordinator for fuels with Volvo Group Trucks Technology based in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Worldwide Fuel Charter was first established in 1998 to increase understanding of the fuel quality needs of motor vehicle and engine technologies and to promote fuel quality harmonisation worldwide in accordance with those needs. The Charter matches fuel specifications to the vehicle and engine specifications required to meet various customer needs around the world and is a joint effort of several OEM organisations including the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (Auto Alliance), Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association (EMA) and Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA).

The last update of the Worldwide Fuel Charter, the Fifth Edition, was published in 2013, and introduced Category 5 for markets with highly advanced requirements for emission control and fuel efficiency. Category 5 raised the minimum research octane number (RON) to 95 to enable some gasoline technologies that can help increase vehicle and engine efficiency. For diesel fuel, Category 5 established a high quality hydrocarbon-only specification that takes advantage of the characteristics of certain advanced biofuels, including hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and Biomass-to-Liquid (BTL), provided all other specifications are respected and the resulting blend met defined legislated limits.

Other changes from the previous edition included a new test method for trace metals and an updated gasoline volatility table. Significant changes related to biodiesel: the Fifth Edition allowed up to 5% biodiesel by volume in Category 4 diesel fuel, new diesel fuel oxidation stability limits and an alternative oxidation stability test method with correlations to other test methods.