Thermogravimetric Analysis of Marine Gas Oil in Lubricating Oil

Marine lubricating oil (LO) is deteriorated by contaminants-especially marine gas oil (MGO), which is invariably mixed during its usage-that can damage engine performance. This study investigates a method for determining the content of MGO in lubricating oil. Weight loss from MGO-containing lubricant was evaluated through thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and a standard calibration curve was plotted to establish a correlation with MGO content. A comparison of the commonly used ASTM-based gas chromatography (GC) analysis, and this TGA approach revealed that the former was more accurate when the lubricant contained <= 1% MGO; however, TGA afforded higher accuracy when the MGO content was between 0.5% and 15%. Hence, TGA can be used as a simple, reliable, and rapid method to analyze the contents of a lubricant contaminant such as MGO.

Automated summary

This study investigated a method for determining the content of marine gas oil (MGO) in lubricating oil, finding that thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) can be used as a simple, reliable, and rapid method to analyze the contents of MGO in lubricant, with higher accuracy when the MGO content is between 0.5% and 15%.