Quality Control

 The purpose of all production laboratories is to ensure the proper quality of the final products in a cost efficient manner. The main functions of the analytical service are to control the quality of feedstock and final products, support the production process, perform environmental monitoring, research and examinations for the purpose of smooth production, product quality improvement, development of new production processes and products and improvement of the existing ones. Thus, the functions of the analytical service are numerous. The service plays a key role in the achievement of the prime objective of each company — making a profit.

The functions of the analytical service at Zaural Refinery are performed by the Central Laboratory. Currently, it is a corporate unit with over 100 highly qualified staff members.

Commodity laboratory

Recently, the commodity laboratory has been supplied with the laboratory equipment for Euro-5 diesel quality control. In accordance with the customs union’s technical regulations and GOST R 52368-2005, the commodity laboratory currently performs a number of new functions, such as determination of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by a liquid chromatography (HPLC) method, sulphur test by ultraviolet fluorescence, test for diesel fuel lubricating property and cetane rating.

The quality of diesel fuel is determined using the high-technology automated equipment, standard laboratory methods of testing and on-line proximate analyses.

In a diesel engine, the fuel-air mixture is ignited by compression; that is why the cetane ratio is a main characteristic of diesel fuel: the higher the cetane ratio is, the easier the engine is started using such fuel. The cetane number of Euro-5 diesel according to GOST R EN 15195 is tested using the Ignition Quality Tester (IQTTM) Lab Model (LM) allowing determining the ignition characteristics quickly and with high confidence.