An improperly lubricated engine may suffer from excessive heat, wear and noise, and will often fail if the issue is not resolved. Upon adding a lubricant fluid to an engine, the very operation of that engine begins to impact the functionality of the oil. An example of this the degradation of lubricanting oil by the presence of fuel contaminants such as gasoline, diesel and biodiesel.
Oil testing facilities such as Caterpillar typically run hundreds of thousands of samples each year, thus requiring a fast and robust method for analysing diluents. This study outlines the principles and technology for such a fast and robust GC method.